TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluations of primary metals from NHEXAS Arizona
T2 - Distributions and preliminary exposures
AU - O'Rourke, Mary Kay
AU - Van De Water, Peter K.
AU - Jin, Shan
AU - Rogan, Séumas P.
AU - Weiss, Aaron D.
AU - Gordon, Sydney M.
AU - Moschandreas, Demetrios M.
AU - Lebowitz, Michael D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Our thanks are extended to the many people who contributed to the success of this study. We thank the study subjects for their participation, the University of Arizona Field, Laboratory and Support Staff, Laboratory Staff at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio and the staff at FDA. Special recognition is due to Dr. Timothy Buckley, who provided invaluable aid in the early phases of this project. Our valued colleagues at EPA, Dr. Maurice Berry and Dr. Lisa Barlion facilitated obtaining results from some of the laboratories involved, and Mr. Gary Robertson lives in the trenches with us. We also acknowledge the positive efforts of Ms. Susan B. Hopf, our Quality Assurance Officer and the QA staff at EPA who contribute d mightily. We thank two reviewers of this manuscript who greatly improved its quality. Although the research described in this article has been funded wholly or in part by EPA through Cooperative Agreement CR 821560 to The University of Arizona, it has not been subjected to Agency review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - NHEXAS AZ is a multimedia, multipathway exposure assessment survey designed to evaluate metals and other analytes. This paper reports the analyte-specific concentration distributions in each of the media examined (air, soil, house dust, food, beverage, and water), for various methodologies used (inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy and hydride generation-atomic absorption spectroscopy). Results are reported for the five primary metals (Pb, As, Cd, Cr, and Ni). Ingestion was the most important pathway of exposure. Metal concentrations in air were very low (ng/m3) and found only above the 90th percentile. Metals were commonly found in house dust and soil. Exposure transfer coefficients minimize the importance of this component for those over the age of 6 years. When ranked by exposure, food, beverage, and water appeared to be the primary contributors of metal exposure in NHEXAS AZ. For instance, at the 90th percentile, Pb was undetected in air, found at 131 and 118 μg/m3 in floor dust and soil, respectively, and measured at 16 μg/kg in food, 7.1 μg/kg in beverage, and 2.0 and 1.3 μg/l in drinking and tap water, respectively. We calculated preliminary estimates of total exposure (μg/day) for each participant and examined them independently by age, gender, and ethnicity as reported by the subjects in the NHEXAS questionnaire. At the 90th percentile for Pb, total exposures were 64 μg/day across all subjects (n = 176); adult men (n = 55) had the greatest exposure (73 μg/day) and children (n = 35) the least (37 μg/day). Hispanics (n = 54) had greater exposure to Pb (68 μg/day) than non-Hispanics (n=119; 50 μg/day), whereas non-Hispanics had greater exposure for all other metals reported. These results have implications related to environmental justice. The NHEXAS project provides information to make informed decisions for protecting and promoting appropriate public health policy.
AB - NHEXAS AZ is a multimedia, multipathway exposure assessment survey designed to evaluate metals and other analytes. This paper reports the analyte-specific concentration distributions in each of the media examined (air, soil, house dust, food, beverage, and water), for various methodologies used (inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy and hydride generation-atomic absorption spectroscopy). Results are reported for the five primary metals (Pb, As, Cd, Cr, and Ni). Ingestion was the most important pathway of exposure. Metal concentrations in air were very low (ng/m3) and found only above the 90th percentile. Metals were commonly found in house dust and soil. Exposure transfer coefficients minimize the importance of this component for those over the age of 6 years. When ranked by exposure, food, beverage, and water appeared to be the primary contributors of metal exposure in NHEXAS AZ. For instance, at the 90th percentile, Pb was undetected in air, found at 131 and 118 μg/m3 in floor dust and soil, respectively, and measured at 16 μg/kg in food, 7.1 μg/kg in beverage, and 2.0 and 1.3 μg/l in drinking and tap water, respectively. We calculated preliminary estimates of total exposure (μg/day) for each participant and examined them independently by age, gender, and ethnicity as reported by the subjects in the NHEXAS questionnaire. At the 90th percentile for Pb, total exposures were 64 μg/day across all subjects (n = 176); adult men (n = 55) had the greatest exposure (73 μg/day) and children (n = 35) the least (37 μg/day). Hispanics (n = 54) had greater exposure to Pb (68 μg/day) than non-Hispanics (n=119; 50 μg/day), whereas non-Hispanics had greater exposure for all other metals reported. These results have implications related to environmental justice. The NHEXAS project provides information to make informed decisions for protecting and promoting appropriate public health policy.
KW - Environmental justice
KW - Exposure assessment
KW - Exposure pathways
KW - Metals
KW - NHEXAS
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U2 - 10.1038/sj.jea.7500049
DO - 10.1038/sj.jea.7500049
M3 - Article
C2 - 10554146
AN - SCOPUS:0032744614
SN - 1053-4245
VL - 9
SP - 435
EP - 445
JO - Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology
JF - Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology
IS - 5
ER -