Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Predictors of Urinary Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Concentrations: NHANES 2001–2006

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Exposure and Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hazardous air pollutants formed during incomplete combustion, absorbed through inhalation and ingestion, and metabolized to hydroxylated compounds that can be detected in urine. Biomonitoring data provide a direct way to link human exposure to environmental contaminants. However, these data do not reveal how various exposure routes or media contribute to the body burden of a specific chemical. We evaluated predictors of urinary PAH concentrations in 2001–2006 NHANES participants from reported information on demographic and housing characteristics, reported food intake, and modeled outdoor air pollutant exposures. NHANES participants were linked to their daily PM2.5 exposure estimate and annual air toxics concentrations. Multivariate linear regression models were developed using the Deletion/Substitution/Addition algorithm to predict urinary PAHs. Exposure to air pollution was not associated with levels of urinary PAH metabolites. Current smoking status was the strongest predictor of PAH biomarker concentration and was able to explain 10–47% of the variability of PAH biomarker concentrations. In non-smokers, our prediction models were able to explain only 2–5% of the variability of PAH biomarker concentrations. Overall, our results indicated, with the exception of smoking status, there are not strong demographic, dietary, or environmental predictors of PAH exposure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adetona O, Sjodin A, Zheng L, Romanoff LC, Aguilar-Villalobos M, Needham LL, Hall DB, Luis A, Cassidy BE, Simpson CD et al (2012) Personal exposure to PM(2.5) and urinary hydroxy-PAH levels in bus drivers exposed to traffic exhaust, in Trujillo, Peru. J Occup Environ Hyg 9(4):217–229

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Aquilina NJ, Delgado-Saborit JM, Meddings C, Baker S, Harrison RM, Jacob P III, Wilson M, Yu L, Duan M, Benowitz NL (2010) Environmental and biological monitoring of exposures to PAHs and ETS in the general population. Environ Int 36(7):763–771

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • ATSDR (1995) Toxicological profile for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Atlanta

    Google Scholar 

  • ATSDR (2009) Case studies in environmental medicine toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Course: WB 1519. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Division of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine, Atlanta

  • Baek SO, Field RA, Goldstone ME, Kirk PW, Lester JN, Perry R (1991) A review of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: sources, fate and behavior. Water Air Soil Pollut 60(3–4):279–300

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boström C-E, Gerde P, Hanberg A, Jernström B, Johansson C, Kyrklund T, Rannug A, Törnqvist M, Victorin K, Westerholm R (2002) Cancer risk assessment, indicators, and guidelines for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the ambient air. Environ Health Perspect 110(Suppl 3):451–488

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) (2012a) NHANES 2001-2002: phthalates, phytoestrogens & PAHs—urine data documentation, codebook, and frequencies. https://wwwn.cdc.gov/Nchs/Nhanes/2001-2002/PHPYPA_B.htm#URXP01. Accessed 26 July 2012

  • CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) (2012b) NHANES 2003–2004: polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—urine data documentation, codebook, and frequencies. https://wwwn.cdc.gov/Nchs/Nhanes/2003-2004/L31PAH_C.htm. Accessed 26 July 2012

  • CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) (2016) NHANES 2005–2006—laboratory data. http://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/search/DataPage.aspx?Component=Laboratory&CycleBeginYear=2005. Accessed 22 Feb 2016

  • Duarte-Salles T, Mendez MA, Pessoa V, Guxens M, Aguilera I, Kogevinas M, Sunyer J (2010) Smoking during pregnancy is associated with higher dietary intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and poor diet quality. Public Health Nutr 13(12):2034–2043

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ESRI (2014) ArcGIS 10.2, Redlands, CA

  • Garcia E, Hurley S, Nelson DO, Gunier RB, Hertz A, Reynolds P (2014) Evaluation of the agreement between modeled and monitored ambient hazardous air pollutants in California. Int J Environ Health Res 24(4):363–377

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hecht SS (2002) human urinary carcinogen metabolites: biomarkers for investigating tobacco and cancer. Carcinogenesis 23(6):907–922

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • IARC (2002) Some traditional herbal medicines, some mycotoxins, naphthalene and styrene. IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans, vol 82. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon

  • IARC (2004) IARC monographs on evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans: tobacco smoke and involuntary smoking. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon

    Google Scholar 

  • IARC (2010) Some non-heterocyclic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and some related exposures. IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans, vol 92. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon

  • IARC (2012) IARC working group on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans. IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans: chemical agents and related occupations. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, p 9

  • Laan MJ, Dudoit S, Vaart AW (2006) The cross-validated adaptive epsilon-net estimator. Stat Decis 24(3):373–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Leroyer A, Jeandel F, Maitre A, Howsam M, Deplanque D, Mazzuca M, Nisse C (2010) 1-Hydroxypyrene and 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene as biomarkers of exposure to PAH in various environmental exposure situations. Sci Tot Environ 408(5):1166–1173

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Sandau CD, Romanoff LC, Caudill SP, Sjodin A, Needham LL, Patterson DG (2008) Concentration and profile of 22 urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites in the US population. Environ Res 107(3):320–331

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Mulholland JA, Romanoff LC, Pittman EN, Trinidad DA, Lewin MD, Sjödin A (2010) Assessment of non-occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons through personal air sampling and urinary biomonitoring. J Environ Monit 12(5):1110–1118

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Romanoff L, Bartell S, Pittman EN, Trinidad DA, McClean M, Webster TF, Sjödin A (2012) excretion profiles and half-lives of ten urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites after dietary exposure. Chem Res Toxicol 25(7):1452–1461

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lu SS, Sobus JR, Sallsten G, Albin M, Pleil JD, Gudmundsson A, Madden MC, Strandberg B, Wierzbicka A, Rappaport SM (2014) Are urinary PAHs biomarkers of controlled exposure to diesel exhaust? Biomarkers 19(4):332–339

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McMillan NJ, Holland DM, Morara M, Feng J (2010) Combining numerical model output and particulate data using bayesian space–time modeling. Environmetrics 21(1):48–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadeau K, McDonald-Hyman C, Noth EM, Pratt B, Hammond SK, Balmes J, Tager I (2010) ambient air pollution impairs regulatory T-cell function in asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 126(4):845.e10–852.e10

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Naeher LP, Brauer M, Lipsett M, Zelikoff JT, Simpson CD, Koenig JQ, Smith KR (2007) Woodsmoke health effects: a review. Inhal Toxicol 19(1):67–106

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Noth EM, Hammond SK, Biging GS, Tager IB (2011) A spatial-temporal regression model to predict daily outdoor residential PAH concentrations in an epidemiologic study in Fresno, CA. Atmos Environ 45(14):2394–2403

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Padula AM, Balmes JR, Eisen EA, Mann J, Noth EM, Lurmann FW, Pratt B, Tager IB, Nadeau K, Hammond SK (2015) Ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pulmonary function in children. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 25(3):295–302

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2013) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing: Vienna

  • SAS (2013) SAS Institute Inc. SAS 9.4, Cary

  • Shin H-M, McKone TE, Bennett DH (2013) Evaluating environmental modeling and sampling data with biomarker data to identify sources and routes of exposure. Atmos Environ 69:148–155

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sinisi SE, Van Der Laan MJ (2004) Loss-based cross-validated deletion/substitution/addition algorithms in estimation

  • Sobus JR, Pleil JD, Madden MC, Funk WE, Hubbard HF, Rappaport SM (2008) Identification of surrogate measures of diesel exhaust exposure in a controlled chamber study. Environ Sci Technol 42(23):8822–8828

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • St. Helen G, Goniewicz ML, Dempsey D, Wilson M, Jacob P III, Benowitz NL (2012) Exposure and kinetics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in cigarette smokers. Chem Res Toxicol 25(4):952–964

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • US EPA (2011) An overview of methods for EPA’s National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment. Office of Air Quality, Planning, and Standards

  • US EPA (2013) O. National Air Toxics Assessment. https://www.epa.gov/national-air-toxics-assessment. Accessed 19 May 2013

  • US EPA (2016a) Original list of hazardous air pollutants. Technology transfer network air toxics website. https://www3.epa.gov/ttn/atw/orig189.html. Accessed 21 Nov 2016

  • US EPA (2016b) Air quality data for the CDC National EPHT Network. Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences. https://archive.epa.gov/heasd/archive-heasd/web/html/cdc.html. Accessed 16 May 2016

  • US EPA (2016c) Health effects notebook for hazardous air pollutants—polycyclic-organic-matter. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/polycyclic-organic-matter.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov 2016

  • US EPA (2016d) Assessment methods. 2002 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment. Technology transfer network air toxics website. https://archive.epa.gov/nata2002/web/html/methods.html. Accessed 19 Nov 2016

  • Van Der Laan MJ, Dudoit S (2003) Unified cross-validation methodology for selection among estimators and a general cross-validated adaptive epsilon-net estimator: finite sample Oracle inequalities and examples

  • Van Rooij JGM, Veeger MMS, Bodelier-Bade MM, Scheepers PTJ, Jongeneelen FJ (1994) Smoking and dietary intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as sources of interindividual variability in the baseline excretion of 1-hydroxypyrene in urine. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 66(1):55–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Tjoa T, Li L, Jaimes G, Delfino RJ (2012) Modeling personal particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (Pb-Pah) exposure in human subjects in southern California. Environ Health Glob Access Sci Source 11:47

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (BAA11993 Contract # 200-2010-37740). Kathleen Navarro was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Targeted Research Traineeship (T42 OH008429). We would also like to thank the National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center for their assistance. The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Research Data Center, the National Center for Health Statistics, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Kathleen M. Navarro, Jennifer K. Mann, S. Katharine Hammond, Thomas E. McKone & John R. Balmes

  2. Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Thomas E. McKone

  3. Manti-La Sal National Forest, 599W. Price River Dr, Price, UT, 84501, USA

    Kathleen M. Navarro

Authors
  1. Kathleen M. Navarro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jennifer K. Mann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. Katharine Hammond
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Thomas E. McKone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. John R. Balmes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathleen M. Navarro.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 84 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Navarro, K.M., Mann, J.K., Hammond, S.K. et al. Predictors of Urinary Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Concentrations: NHANES 2001–2006. Expo Health 11, 237–247 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-018-00292-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-018-00292-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation