Grantee Research Project Results
2012 Progress Report: New Environmental Public Health Indicator Linking Organochlorine Compounds and Type 2 Diabetes
EPA Grant Number: R834795Title: New Environmental Public Health Indicator Linking Organochlorine Compounds and Type 2 Diabetes
Investigators: Chambers, Janice E. , Crow, John Allen , Ross, Matthew K. , Wills, Robert W.
Institution: Mississippi State University
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2014 (Extended to March 31, 2016)
Project Period Covered by this Report: April 1, 2012 through March 31,2013
Project Amount: $500,000
RFA: Exploring Linkages Between Health Outcomes and Environmental Hazards, Exposures, and Interventions for Public Health Tracking and Risk Management (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Human Health
Objective:
The project will investigate the association between organochlorine compound (DDE and trans-nonachlor) levels in soils and human blood with the presence of type 2 diabetes in these same humans. The hypothesis is that the soils and human blood will contain higher levels of select organochlorine (OC) compounds along with higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the highly agricultural Delta area of Mississippi, than in the largely non-agricultural non-Delta region. If this hypothesis is verified, then the presence of these OC compounds could serve as an Environmental Public Health Indicator (EPHI) for environmentally influenced type 2 diabetes risk.
Progress Summary:
The project has collected, extracted and analyzed 60 randomly selected soil samples each from the Delta region and a non-Delta region in Missisippi. It was anticipated that the Delta soils would contain higher levels of legacy OC insecticides (or their degradation products) than the non-Delta soils because of the much higher historical levels of agriculture activity and pesticide use in the Delta compared to the non-Delta. The results have been consistent with this anticipation, with the Delta soils containing about 10-fold higher levels of DDE than the non-Delta soils, and the Delta soils having overall proportionately more samples having quantifiable residues than the non-Delta soils. Therefore, the likelihood of exposure to people from dust and consequently contamination of food and water, as well as contact surfaces, will be substantially higher for residents of the Delta than the non-Delta, even today 35-40 years after the use of these insecticides was cancelled. These environmental measurements are consistent with the hypothesis underlying this project’s proposed Environmental Public Health Indicator.
The collection and analysis of human blood samples from Delta and non-Delta residents has been initiated with subjects recruited from the Veterans Administration hospital in Jackson, MS. A total of 70 subjects of the intended 300 have been recruited, and the organochlorine concentrations of their serum samples have been analyzed. DDE occurred at quantifiable levels in about two thirds of the samples of both diabetics and non-diabetics. Although results are preliminary, at this point in the data collection there is about 1.5 times more DDE in the serum of diabetics than non-diabetics, suggesting that, if verified with more data, serum DDE may be a useful biomarker of risk of type 2 diabetes.
Future Activities:
The project will obtain the remaining blood samples from residents of the Delta and non-Delta region, and will have the levels of DDE and trans-nonachlor quantified, and the levels of these OC compounds will be statistically analyzed for associations with type 2 diabetes.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 9 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Exposure, health effects, human health, environmental chemistry, monitoring, analytical, persistent organic pollutantsProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.