title: Historical intake and elimination of polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides by the Australian population reconstructed from biomonitoring data.
abstract: Quantifying the competing rates of intake and elimination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the human body is necessary to understand the levels and trends of POPs at a population level. In this paper we reconstruct the historical intake and elimination of ten polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and five organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) from Australian biomonitoring data by fitting a population-level pharmacokinetic (PK) model. Our analysis exploits two sets of cross-sectional biomonitoring data for PCBs and OCPs in pooled blood serum samples from the Australian population that were collected in 2003 and 2009. The modeled adult reference intakes in 1975 for PCB congeners ranged from 0.89 to 24.5ng/kgbw/day, lower than the daily intakes of OCPs ranging from 73 to 970ng/kgbw/day. Modeled intake rates are declining with half-times from 1.1 to 1.3years for PCB congeners and 0.83 to 0.97years for OCPs. The shortest modeled intrinsic human elimination half-life among the compounds studied here is 6.4years for hexachlorobenzene, and the longest is 30years for PCB-74. Our results indicate that it is feasible to reconstruct intakes and to estimate intrinsic human elimination half-lives using the population-level PK model and biomonitoring data only. Our modeled intrinsic human elimination half-lives are in good agreement with values from a similar study carried out for the population of the United Kingdom, and are generally longer than reported values from other industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10085, China; School of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Qingwei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Environmental Science (ITM), Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: matthew.macleod@itm.su.se.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: MacLeod
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Environmental Science (ITM), Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: School of Clinical Sciences and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Leisa-Maree L
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Toms
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, Entox, 39 Kessels Road, Coopers Plains, Australia.
authors.forename: Jochen F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10085, China. Electronic address: yg-den@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005260:Female; D006207:Half-Life; D006581:Hexachlorobenzene / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; D010575:Pesticides; D006581:Hexachlorobenzene; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls; C541132:2,4,4',5-tetrachlorobiphenyl
keywords: Elimination; Intake; Modeling; OCPs; PCBs; Pharmacokinetics