Background

Harmonized data describing simultaneous exposure to a large number of environmental contaminants in-utero and during childhood is currently very limited.

Objectives

To characterize concentrations of a large number of environmental contaminants in pregnant women from Europe and their children, based on chemical analysis of biological samples from mother-child pairs.

Methods

We relied on the Early-Life Exposome project, HELIX, a collaborative project across six established population-based birth cohort studies in Europe. In 1301 subjects, biomarkers of exposure to 45 contaminants (i.e. organochlorine compounds, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, toxic and essential elements, phthalate metabolites, environmental phenols, organophosphate pesticide metabolites and cotinine) were measured in biological samples from children (6–12 years) and their mothers during pregnancy, using highly sensitive biomonitoring methods.

Results

Most of the exposure biomarkers had high detection frequencies in mothers (35 out of 45 biomarkers with >90% detected) and children (33 out of 45 biomarkers with >90% detected). Concentrations were significantly different between cohorts for all compounds, and were generally higher in maternal compared to children samples. For most of the persistent compounds the correlations between maternal and child concentrations were moderate to high (Spearman Rho > 0.35), while for most non-persistent compounds correlations were considerably lower (Spearman Rho < 0.15). For mercury, PFOS and PFOA a considerable proportion of the samples of both mothers and their children exceeded the HBM I value established by The Human Biomonitoring Commission of the German Federal Environment Agency.

Discussion

Although not based on a representative sample, our study suggests that children across Europe are exposed to a wide range of environmental contaminants in fetal life and childhood including many with potential adverse effects. For values exceeding the HBM I value identification of specific sources of exposure and reducing exposure in an adequate way is recommended. Considerable variability in this “chemical exposome” was seen between cohorts, showing that place of residence is a strong determinant of one's personal exposome. This extensive dataset comprising >100,000 concentrations of environmental contaminants in mother-child pairs forms a unique possibility for conducting epidemiological studies using an exposome approach.

中文翻译：

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六个欧洲母子队列的子宫内和儿童化学暴露

 背景

目前描述子宫内和儿童期同时暴露于大量环境污染物的统一数据非常有限。

 目标

根据对母子对生物样本的化学分析，表征欧洲孕妇及其孩子体内大量环境污染物的浓度。

 方法

我们依靠早期生命暴露组项目 HELIX，这是一个跨欧洲六项已建立的基于人群的出生队列研究的合作项目。在 1301 名受试者中，对儿童生物样本中暴露于 45 种污染物（即有机氯化合物、多溴二苯醚、全氟烷基物质和多氟烷基物质、有毒元素和必需元素、邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物、环境酚、有机磷农药代谢物和可替宁）的生物标志物进行了测量（ 6-12 岁）及其怀孕期间的母亲，使用高度敏感的生物监测方法。

 结果

大多数暴露生物标志物在母亲（45 种生物标志物中的 35 种检测率 >90%）和儿童（45 种生物标志物中的 33 种检测率 >90%）中检测频率较高。所有化合物的浓度在队列之间存在显着差异，并且与儿童样本相比，母亲样本中的浓度通常较高。对于大多数持久性化合物，母婴浓度之间的相关性为中等到高（Spearman Rho > 0.35），而对于大多数非持久性化合物，相关性相当低（Spearman Rho < 0.15）。对于汞、全氟辛烷磺酸 (PFOS) 和全氟辛酸 (PFOA)，母亲及其孩子的样本中有相当一部分超过了德国联邦环境署人类生物监测委员会制定的 HBM I 值。

 讨论

尽管不是基于代表性样本，但我们的研究表明，欧洲各地的儿童在胎儿期和儿童期都接触到多种环境污染物，其中许多污染物具有潜在的不利影响。对于超过 HBM I 值的值，建议识别特定的暴露源并以适当的方式减少暴露。在不同队列之间观察到这种“化学暴露组”存在相当大的变异性，这表明居住地是一个人的个人暴露组的重要决定因素。这一广泛的数据集包含母子对中超过 100,000 个浓度的环境污染物，为使用暴露组方法进行流行病学研究提供了独特的可能性。