Neurobehavioral function and low-level exposure to brominated flame retardants in adolescents: a cross-sectional study

Environmental Health

Research

Michał Kiciński¹  Tim S Nawrot²  Kim Croes³  Willy Baeyens³  Vera Nelen⁴  Mineke K Viaene⁵  Isabelle Sioen⁶  Nicolas Van Larebeke⁷  Elly Den Hond⁸  Greet Schoeters⁹  Liesbeth Bruckers^1,10  Alin C Dirtu^1,11  Adrian Covaci^1,11 

[1] Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium;Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium;School of Public Health, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, KULeuven, Leuven, Belgium;Department of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Brussels Free University (VUB), Brussels, Belgium;Department of Health, Provincial Institute for Hygiene, Antwerp, Belgium;Department of Neurology, Sint Dimphna Hospital, Geel, Belgium;Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine, University Ghent, Ghent, Belgium;Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Environmental Risk and Health, Mol, Belgium;Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Environmental Risk and Health, Mol, Belgium;Department of Biomedical sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium;Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium;Toxicological Center, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium;

关键词: Brominated flame retardants;    PBDE;    TBBPA;    HBCD;    Neurotoxicity;    Neurobehavioral function;    Cognitive function;    Cognition;    Adolescents;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-11-86

 received in 2012-07-03, accepted in 2012-10-29,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAnimal and in vitro studies demonstrated a neurotoxic potential of brominated flame retardants, a group of chemicals used in many household and commercial products to prevent fire. Although the first reports of detrimental neurobehavioral effects in rodents appeared more than ten years ago, human data are sparse.MethodsAs a part of a biomonitoring program for environmental health surveillance in Flanders, Belgium, we assessed the neurobehavioral function with the Neurobehavioral Evaluation System (NES-3), and collected blood samples in a group of high school students. Cross-sectional data on 515 adolescents (13.6-17 years of age) was available for the analysis. Multiple regression models accounting for potential confounders were used to investigate the associations between biomarkers of internal exposure to brominated flame retardants [serum levels of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners 47, 99, 100, 153, 209, hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA)] and cognitive performance. In addition, we investigated the association between brominated flame retardants and serum levels of FT3, FT4, and TSH.ResultsA two-fold increase of the sum of serum PBDE’s was associated with a decrease of the number of taps with the preferred-hand in the Finger Tapping test by 5.31 (95% CI: 0.56 to 10.05, p = 0.029). The effects of the individual PBDE congeners on the motor speed were consistent. Serum levels above the level of quantification were associated with an average decrease of FT3 level by 0.18 pg/mL (95% CI: 0.03 to 0.34, p = 0.020) for PBDE-99 and by 0.15 pg/mL (95% CI: 0.004 to 0.29, p = 0.045) for PBDE-100, compared with concentrations below the level of quantification. PBDE-47 level above the level of quantification was associated with an average increase of TSH levels by 10.1% (95% CI: 0.8% to 20.2%, p = 0.033), compared with concentrations below the level of quantification. We did not observe effects of PBDE’s on neurobehavioral domains other than the motor function. HBCD and TBBPA did not show consistent associations with performance in the neurobehavioral tests.ConclusionsThis study is one of few studies and so far the largest one investigating the neurobehavioral effects of brominated flame retardants in humans. Consistently with experimental animal data, PBDE exposure was associated with changes in the motor function and the serum levels of the thyroid hormones.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Kiciński et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.