Yanxin Yu

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon residues in human milk, placenta, and umbilical cord blood in Beijing, China.

This paper provides the results of an investigation on dietary intakes and internal doses of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for nonsmoking women from Beijing, China. Concentrations of PAHs were measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for human milk, placenta, and umbilical cord blood samples from 40 nonsmoking women and for 144 composite food samples covering major food categories. Information on food consumption and estimated ingestion doses of PAHs by the cohort was also collected individually. Relationship among the studied human samples and relative importance of breastfeeding to the total exposure dose of infants were addressed. The median (mean and standard deviation) total concentrations of 15 PAHs in human milk, placenta, and umbilical cord blood with (or without) fat normalization were 278 (9.30 ± 5.75), 819 (35.9 ± 15.4), and 1370 (5.521 ± 3.71) ng/g of fat, respectively, and the corresponding levels of benzo[a]pyrene equivalent (B[a]P(equiv)) were 11.2 (0.473 ± 0.605), 16.2 (0.717 ± 0.318), and 13.1 (0.140 ± 0.225) ng/g of fat, respectively. The calculated intake of B[a]P(equiv) by Beijing cohort varied from 0.609 to 4.69 ng·kg(-1)·day(-1) with a median value of 1.93 (2.09 ± 0.921 mean ± standard deviation) ng·kg(-1)·day(-1). Significant correlations were found among human milk, placenta, and umbilical cord blood (p < 0.05) for low-molecular-weight PAHs, indicating selective transfer potential of individual PAHs from mother to fetus. Internal dose of PAHs was not in proportion to amounts of food ingestion, daily dietary intake, lifestyle, and social-demographic characteristics of the participants (p > 0.05). Ingested doses of PAHs (3.00-102 ng·kg(-1)·day(-1)), which were much higher than the inhaled doses (0.152-8.50 ng·kg(-1)·day(-1)), were 3-4 orders of magnitude lower than the recommended reference doses, unlikely to impose any obvious risk based on current knowledge.

Risk of human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: A case study in Beijing, China

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can cause adverse effects on human health. The relative contributions of their two major intake routes (diet and inhalation) to population PAH exposure are still unclear. We modeled the contributions of diet and inhalation to the overall PAH exposure of the population of Beijing in China, and assessed their human incremental lifetime cancer risks (ILCR) using a Mont Carlo simulation approach. The results showed that diet accounted for about 85% of low-molecular-weight PAH (L-PAH) exposure, while inhalation accounted for approximately 57% of high-molecular-weight PAH (H-PAH) exposure of the Beijing population. Meat and cereals were the main contributors to dietary PAH exposure. Both gaseous- and particulate-phase PAHs contributed to L-PAH exposure through inhalation, whereas exposure to H-PAHs was mostly from the particulate-phase. To reduce the cancer incidence of the Beijing population, more attention should be given to inhaled particulate-phase PAHs with considerable carcinogenic potential.

A perspective of chronic low exposure of arsenic on non-working women: Risk of hypertension ☆ ☆☆

The relationship between arsenic (As) exposure and hypertension risk are extensively studied. The As content in scalp hair has been used as a reliable indicator of population for long-time exposure from different sources. Therefore, we investigated the association between hair As concentration and hypertension risk, as well as the potential modifying effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to phase II metabolism enzyme genes. We recruited 398 non-working women in Shanxi Province, northern China, from Aug 2012 to May 2013, including 163 subjects with hypertension (cases) and 235 healthy controls. Scalp hair and blood samples were collected from each subject. We analyzed the As concentrations of ~24-cm-long strands of hair representing the two most recent years of growth and SNPs of three genes (epoxide hydrolase 1, N-acetyltransferase 2, and glutathione S-transferase P1) in each subject. The results revealed that the hair As concentration of this population was significantly lower than in populations living near high As polluted sources in China and other countries. The median As concentration (inter-quartile range) of hair in the cases (i.e. 0.211 [0.114-0.395] μg/g hair) was higher than in the controls (i.e. 0.101 [0.048-0.227] μg/g hair). Higher hair As concentrations were associated with an elevated hypertension risk, with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.55 [95% confidence interval: 1.55-4.20]. No interaction effects between hair As concentration and SNPs related to phase II metabolism enzymes on hypertension risk were observed. It was concluded that chronic low exposure level of As might be associated with hypertension risk among the study subjects.

Temporal trends in daily dietary intakes of DDTs and HCHs in urban populations from Beijing and Shenyang, China.

The temporal trends in daily dietary exposure of the populations in Beijing and Shenyang, China to DDTs and HCHs through consumption of various food categories and the associated health risks were investigated in this work. The estimated dietary intakes of DDTs and HCHs in 2005/2007 were almost one and two orders of magnitude lower than those in 1992 and in the 1970s, respectively, revealing the historical decrease of DDT and HCH in Chinese foods after their applications were banned. The relative contributions of different foodstuffs to the overall intakes of DDTs and HCHs in the 1970s and in 1992 were very different from those in 2005/2007, mainly due to the remarkable concentration variance in foodstuffs and changes in diet habit of population. According to the hazard guidelines, it is concluded that intakes of these two pesticides in 2005/2007 may not exert adverse effects on human health.

Highly efficient and stable Zr-doped nanocrystalline PbO2 electrode for mineralization of perfluorooctanoic acid in a sequential treatment system.

Zr-doped nanocrystalline PbO2 (Zr-PbO2) film electrodes were prepared at different bath temperatures. The Zr-PbO2 electrode doped at 75°C (75-Zr-PbO2) featured high oxygen evolution overpotential, large effective area and good electrocatalytic performance. The oxygen evolution potential and the effective area of 75-Zr-PbO2 achieved 1.91V (vs. SCE) and 9.1cm2, respectively. The removal efficiency and the defluorination ratio of PFOA reached 97.0% and 88.1% after 90min electrolysis. The primary mineralization products (i.e., F- and intermediates) and their change trends were determined. The 75-Zr-PbO2 electrode was introduced to sequentially treat the PFOA wastewater. In an 116h of 75-Zr-PbO2 electrocatalysis sequential process, the PFOA, PFHpA, PFHxA, PFPeA, PFBA, PFPrA, TFA, and TOC concentrations were reduced to below 30, 2.5, 1.3, 1.0, 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, and 9mgL-1, respectively, demonstrating the promising application of the sequential treatment system for the treatment of PFOA wastewater.