Legacy Chemical Pollutants in House Dust of Homes of Pregnant African Americans in Atlanta

We developed and applied a method for measuring selected persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (i.e., polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), organochlorine pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)) in dust collected from pregnant African Americans (AAs) in Atlanta using isotope dilution gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Limits of quantification were ranged from 0.10 to 2.50 ng/g dust. NIST standard reference material measurements demonstrated the robustness of our method. Our accuracies ranged from 82 to 108%, relative standard deviations ranged from 2 to 16%, and extraction recoveries ranged from 76 to 102%. We measured POPs in dust collected from 34 homes of pregnant AAs participating in the Atlanta AA birth cohort study who were enrolled from 2016 to 2019. Concentrations of POPs were detected in all samples with the frequencies of detection ranging from 8 to 100%. Concentrations of PBDE congeners 99 and 47, p,p '-DDT, and PCB153 were detected at some of the highest concentrations with geometric means of 1270, 730, 63.4 and 240 ng/g, respectively. The ratio of DDT/DDE was quite large (similar to 2.7) indicating that p,p '-DDT remains intact in homes for long periods of time. These data demonstrate that care should be taken to remediate POPs in indoor dust, especially in vulnerable, disparate segments of the population.

Automated summary

We developed and applied a method to measure selected persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in dust samples collected from pregnant African Americans in Atlanta. The method showed good accuracy, precision, and robustness. We measured concentrations of POPs in 34 samples and found that all samples contained detectable levels of POPs, with varying concentrations. These findings highlight the importance of addressing POP contamination in indoor dust, especially in vulnerable populations.