Toxic Metals, PFAS and PCBs in Blood and Urine Specimens Collected from New Jersey Clinical Laboratories and Blood Banks

摘要

New Jersey (NJ) residents are disproportionally exposed to various hazardous chemicals due to the high density of industry, traffic, and commercial sources. Statewide biomonitoring data are needed to establish a baseline of exposure and to identify potential populations at risk. However, it is costly and laborious to implement a population-based sampling, such as the approach implemented by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for general US population. NJ Department of Health (NJDOH) conducted biomonitoring for toxic metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and emerging pollutants perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) using a cost-effective alternative approach, i.e. measure target contaminants in remnant specimens collected by clinical laboratories and blood banks in NJ. This project aims to assess the distribution of toxic metals in 3000 blood and 1000 urine specimens, PCBs and PFAS in 1000 sera for NJ adults (20-74 years old). From 2015 to 2017, the study has measured 3 toxic metals in 1760 blood specimens, 5 toxic metals in 218 urine specimens, 12 PFAS in 488 sera, and 40 PCBs in 220 sera. Preliminary data showed most analytes fell within the concentration ranges reported by NHANES. However, some pollutants, such as PFNA (GM [Cl]=0.82 [0.78-0.85] NJ, 2016-2017 ng/mL), are elevated compared to the US general population (GM [CI]NHANES, 2013-2014=0.69(0.63-0.75] ng/mL); some surprisingly high results were observed for blood lead (e.g. 50.4 and 26.3 μg/dL) and mercury (several in the 20-30 μg/L range and one in 128 μg/L), and several PCBs showed higher levels than national averages. In-depth analyses are being conducted to examine whether body burdens of NJ adults are significantly higher than national levels and whether there are significant differences by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic location. Through these analyses, NJDOH will identify potentially at-risk subpopulations for further exposure assessment.