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FIXED-SITE AIR AND BIOMARKER MEASUREMENTS OF VOCS IN A NON-OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED POPULATION ALONG THE ARIZONA-MEXICO BORDER
Citation:
Gordon, S. M., M. C. Brinkman, P. J. Callahan, M. D. Lebowitz, M. K. O'Rourke, S. R. Rogan, D. L. Ashley, L. Needham, J. L. Pirkle, D. J. Moschandreas, AND G L. Robertson. FIXED-SITE AIR AND BIOMARKER MEASUREMENTS OF VOCS IN A NON-OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED POPULATION ALONG THE ARIZONA-MEXICO BORDER. Presented at ISEA 2000 Exposure Analysis in the 21st Century: Integrating Science, Policy and Quality of Life, Monterey Peninsula, CA, October 24-27, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary objective of the NAFTA Border study was to determine if the population of the U.S./Mexico Border area of Arizona are more highly exposed to environmental contaminants than the residents of the state of Arizona as a whole. The NAFTA Border Study will also demonstrate the feasibility of using these measurement processes in future multimedia-multipathway studies along the U.S./Mexico Border.
Description:
The goals of the NHEXAS-Border Study are to obtain environmental exposure and biomarker data for a representative population residing along the Arizona-Mexico border, and compare the distributions to similar distributions previously obtained for the state of Arizona (NHEXAS-Arizona) and to reference ranges of biomarkers for the general U.S. population (provided by NHANES III, the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey). Residential environmental measurements were made of multiple pollutants (pesticides, metals, VOCs, PAHs) in a variety of media (air, soil, house dust, food, and drinking water) at a total of 86 homes along the Arizona-Mexico border; biomarker measurements were made in blood and urine.
For the fixed-site air VOCs collected using passive samplers, only 12.5% of the measurements of outdoor samples and 17.1% of the indoor samples were above the method detection limit (13 target compounds). Samples taken using actively-pumped collectors yielded detectable rates of 28.3% for outdoor samples and 38.7% for indoor samples (38 target compounds). For the 12 VOCs measured in blood, the percentage of measurements above the detection limit was 52.9%. About 10% of the blood VOC levels were significantly elevated for 1,4-dichlorobenzene relative to the NHANES III reference, and were above the 90th percentile. By contrast, 1,1,1-trichloroethane and trichloroethene were substantially lower than the NHANES III reference. The fixed-site indoor air concentrations for 1,4-dichlorobenzene were also very high at the 90th percentile compared with values reported in previous monitoring studies. In all homes yielding 1,4-dichlorobenzene air concentrations above the 90th percentile, the concentration of the chemical in the blood of the primary respondents was also greater than the 90th percentile. In some cases, this was attributed to the use of household consumer products, such as room deodorizers or mothballs, in these homes.
The U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development funded this research. The abstract was reviewed and approved. The presentation has not been reviewed.