title: A multi-individual pharmacokinetic model framework for interpreting time trends of persistent chemicals in human populations: application to a postban situation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human milk and blood are monitored to detect time trends of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in humans. It is current practice to use log-linear regression to fit time series of averaged cross-sectional biomonitoring data, here referred to as cross-sectional trend data (CSTD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goals of our study are to clarify the interpretation of half-lives derived from fitting exponential functions to declining CSTD and to provide a method of estimating human elimination half-lives from CSTD collected in a postban situation.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a multi-individual pharmacokinetic model framework and present analytical solutions for a postban period. For this case, the framework quantitatively describes the relationships among the half-life for reduction of body burdens of POPs derived from CSTD, the half-life describing decline in daily intake, and the half-life of elimination from the human body.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The half-life derived from exponential fitting of CSTD collected under postban conditions describes the exposure trend and is independent of human elimination kinetics. We use a case study of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) to show that CSTD can be combined with exposure data obtained from total diet studies to estimate elimination kinetics of POPs for humans under background exposure conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CSTD provide quantitative information about trends in human exposure and can be combined with exposure studies to estimate elimination kinetics. The full utility of these data has not been exploited so far. An efficient and informative monitoring strategy for banned POPs in humans would coordinate sampling of consistent sets of CSTD from young adults with total diet studies.
authors: Safety and Environmental Technology Group, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Roland
authors: R
authors: Ritter
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Scheringer
authors: Matthew
authors: M
authors: MacLeod
authors: Urs
authors: U
authors: Schenker
authors: Konrad
authors: K
authors: Hungerbühler
mesh_terms: D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006207:Half-Life; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants