Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Volume 237, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER GMBH
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113822
Keywords
Metals; Pollutant; Internal exposure; Carcinogen; HBM; Human biomonitoring value
Funding
- German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
- German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
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Metals can enter the human body through various pathways and may have detrimental health effects, especially for children. Studies have shown that different metals can lead to neurotoxicity, mutagenicity, and other toxic effects.
Metals reach humans through food and drinking water intake and inhalation of airborne particles and can have detrimental health effects in particular for children. The metals presented here (lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury) could lead to toxic effects such as neurotoxicity, mutagenicity, and have been classified as (possible) carcinogens. Using population representative data from the German Environmental Survey 2014-2017 (GerES V) from 3- to 17-year-old children on lead and cadmium in blood (n = 720) and on cadmium, chromium, and mercury in urine (n = 2250) we describe current internal exposure levels, and socio-demographic and substancespecific exposure determinants. Average internal exposure (geometric means) in blood was 9.47 mu g/L for lead and below 0.06 mu g/L (limit of quantification) for cadmium, and in urine 0.072 mu g/L for cadmium, 0.067 mu g/L for mercury, and 0.393 mu g/L for chromium, respectively. Younger children have higher concentrations of lead and chromium compared to 14-17-year-old adolescents, and boys have slightly higher mercury concentrations than girls. With respect to substance specific determinants, higher lead concentrations emerged in participants with domestic fuel and in non-smoking children with smokers in the household, higher levels of cadmium were associated with smoking and vegetarian diet and higher levels of mercury with the consumption of seafood and amalgam teeth fillings. No specific exposure determinants emerged for chromium. The health based guidance value HBM-I was not exceeded for mercury and for cadmium in urine it was exceeded by 0.6% of the study population. None of the exceedances was related to substantial tobacco smoke exposure. Comparisons to previous GerES cycles (GerES II, 1990-1992; GerES IV, 2003-2006) indicate continuously lower levels.
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