Interpreting biomarker data from the COPHES/DEMOCOPHES twin projects: Using external exposure data to understand biomarker differences among countries

Journal Article · Sat Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Environmental Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENVRES.2014.08.016· OSTI ID:22483314

Den Hond, E.; Koppen, G.; Govarts, E.; Willems, H. ^[1]; Casteleyn, L. ^[2]; Kolossa-Gehring, M.; Fiddicke, U. ^[3]; Castaño, A. ^[4]; Koch, H. M.; Angerer, J. ^[5]; Esteban, M. ^[4]; Sepai, O.; Exley, K. ^[6]; Bloemen, L. ^[7]; Horvat, M. ^[8]; Knudsen, L. E. ^[9]; Joas, A.; Joas, R. ^[10]; Biot, P. ^[11]; others, and

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1. Flemish Institute of Technological Research (VITO), Environmental Risks and Health Unit, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol (Belgium)
2. KU LEUVEN (Belgium)
3. Federal Environment Agency (UBA) (Germany)
4. Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain)
5. Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance - Institute of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (IPA) (Germany)
6. Public Health England (United Kingdom)
7. Environmental Health Sciences International (Netherlands)
8. Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia)
9. University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
10. BiPRO (Germany)
11. FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment (Belgium)

In 2011 and 2012, the COPHES/DEMOCOPHES twin projects performed the first ever harmonized human biomonitoring survey in 17 European countries. In more than 1800 mother–child pairs, individual lifestyle data were collected and cadmium, cotinine and certain phthalate metabolites were measured in urine. Total mercury was determined in hair samples. While the main goal of the COPHES/DEMOCOPHES twin projects was to develop and test harmonized protocols and procedures, the goal of the current paper is to investigate whether the observed differences in biomarker values among the countries implementing DEMOCOPHES can be interpreted using information from external databases on environmental quality and lifestyle. In general, 13 countries having implemented DEMOCOPHES provided high-quality data from external sources that were relevant for interpretation purposes. However, some data were not available for reporting or were not in line with predefined specifications. Therefore, only part of the external information could be included in the statistical analyses. Nonetheless, there was a highly significant correlation between national levels of fish consumption and mercury in hair, the strength of antismoking legislation was significantly related to urinary cotinine levels, and we were able to show indications that also urinary cadmium levels were associated with environmental quality and food quality. These results again show the potential of biomonitoring data to provide added value for (the evaluation of) evidence-informed policy making. - Highlights: • External data was collected to interpret HBM data from DEMOCOPHES. • Hg in hair could be related to fish consumption across different countries. • Urinary cotinine was related to strictness of anti-smoking legislation. • Urinary Cd was borderline significantly related to air and food quality. • Lack of comparable data among countries hampered the analysis.

• OSTI ID: 22483314
• Journal Information: Environmental Research, Vol. 141; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0013-9351
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BIOLOGICAL MARKERS
CADMIUM
CHILDREN
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ENERGY POLICY
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
HAIR
MERCURY
SMOKES
URINE