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Health risks and source identification of dietary exposure to indicator polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Lanzhou, China

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Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are widely present in multiple environmental media even long after the phaseout, posing a health risk to the general population. Dietary intake is the major exposure route of PCBs; however, information is limited regarding PCBs in food that people directly consume. This study aims to measure personal exposure to indicator PCBs, evaluate the health risks, and identify their sources in a typical metropolitan city in China. Multi-day food samples were collected from 21 subjects in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, in two seasons using the duplicate plate method. Samples were extracted and analyzed for seven indicator PCBs using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Average daily doses (ADDs) of ∑7PCBs were estimated using Monte Carlo analysis with food intake information. Results show that PCB-118 and PCB-180 were the major congeners in food samples with average concentrations of 1.42 and 1.11 ng/g, respectively. The average (± SD) ADD of ∑7PCBs was 26.47 ± 22.10 ng/kg day among adults aged 18–69 years and displayed small variation across age groups. Comparing with the chronic RfD of 7 ng/kg day, 67% of people had their ADDs exceeding this threshold. The median cancer risk was 5.52 × 10−5, and 51% of residents had risks exceeding the action level of 10−4. The principal component analysis identified waste incineration, gasoline engine production, and leakage of #1 PCBs as the major PCBs sources. In conclusion, a large portion of Lanzhou residents has high non-cancer and cancer risks from dietary exposure to PCBs, which warrants control actions targeting these major sources.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all study participants for their time and food samples for this study. This research was supported by the Food Safety Strategic Research Project from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (2017-ZD-05-02-02), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41503104), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-TP-18-071A1, FRF-TP-17-064A1). The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, No. 30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yijin Kang, Suzhen Cao, Fangfang Yan, Ning Qin, Citrine A. El-maleh & Xiaoli Duan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Beibei Wang

  3. Institute of Environmental Science of Gansu Province, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yaqun Zhang

  4. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Kan Shao

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  1. Yijin Kang
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  2. Suzhen Cao
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Kang, Y., Cao, S., Yan, F. et al. Health risks and source identification of dietary exposure to indicator polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Lanzhou, China. Environ Geochem Health 42, 681–692 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-019-00402-7

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