title: Blood dioxin biomonitoring to assess local residents' exposure from a large urban remediation project.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A total of 265000 m(3) of dioxin contaminated soil and sediments from past industrial activity was treated on site in an urban setting in Sydney, Australia. To respond to local community concerns about potential dioxin exposure from fugitive emissions a human biomonitoring study was undertaken.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether local residents were exposed to significant amounts of dioxin from the remediation process.
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood samples were collected from local residents around the site and a representative metropolitan control group. They were pooled within age and sex strata and the change in dioxin concentrations over the remediation period and a summary of the mid point and post remediation dioxin concentrations were compared between groups. Information on dietary intake was collected to look for possible confounding.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean dioxin Toxic Equivalent concentrations (TeQ) decreased among both the local resident and control groups over the remediation period by 1.9 and 2.1 pg gm(-1) lipid respectively. Modelled blood concentrations adjusting for age and sex did not detect a significant difference between groups for changes in either TeQ or 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8 TCDD). The summary measure approach did however demonstrate that the 2,3,7,8 TCDD concentrations among the local resident group was approximately 0.7 pg g(-1) lipid higher compared to the control group post remediation. There were no significant changes in dietary intake sources of dioxin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Biomonitoring demonstrated that local residents were not exposed to significant quantities of dioxin. Large scale remediation of dioxin contaminated land can be safely undertaken in an urban setting.
authors.affiliation: New South Wales Health Department, North Sydney 2060, Australia. mstaff@nsccahs.health.nsw.gov.au
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Staff
authors.forename: Vicky
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sheppeard
authors.forename: Samanthi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abeywardana
authors.forename: Bradley
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Forssman
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rutherford
authors.forename: Jochen F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Paepke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D004147:Dioxins / Q000097:blood*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins / Q000097:blood; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D004147:Dioxins; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins