title: Neighborhood deprivation, race/ethnicity, and urinary metal concentrations among young girls in California.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although metals can adversely impact children's health, the distribution of exposures to many metals, particularly among vulnerable subpopulations, is not well characterized.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We sought to determine whether neighborhood deprivation was associated with urinary concentrations of thirteen metals and whether observed relationships varied by race/ethnicity.
  
  
  METHODS
  We obtained neighborhood characteristics from the 2005-2009 American Community Survey. Demographic information and urine samples from 400 healthy young girls in Northern California were obtained during a clinical visit. Urine samples were analyzed for metals using inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and levels were corrected for creatinine. We ran analysis of variance and generalized linear regression models to estimate associations of urinary metal concentrations with neighborhood deprivation and race/ethnicity and stratified multivariable models to evaluate possible interactions among predictors on metals concentrations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Urinary concentrations of three metals (barium, lead, antimony) varied significantly across neighborhood deprivation quartiles, and four (barium, lead, antimony, tin) varied across race/ethnicity groups. In models adjusted for family income and cotinine, both race/ethnicity (F3,224=4.34, p=0.01) and neighborhood deprivation (F3,224=4.32, p=0.01) were associated with antimony concentrations, but neither were associated with lead, barium, or tin, concentrations. Examining neighborhood deprivation within race/ethnicity groups, barium levels (pinteraction<0.01) decreased with neighborhood deprivation among Hispanic girls (ptrend<0.001) and lead levels (pinteraction=0.06) increased with neighborhood deprivation among Asian girls (ptrend=0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that children's vulnerability to some metals varies by neighborhood deprivation quartile and race/ethnicity. These differential distributions of exposures may contribute to environmental health disparities later in life.
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Health Systems and Interventions Research Branch, Healthcare Delivery Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, BG 9609 RM 3E502 MSC 9712, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850-9712, United States. Electronic address: felisa.gonzales@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Felisa A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, BG 9609 RM 6E124 MSC 9771, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850-9771, United States. Electronic address: rena.jones@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Rena R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: University of California at Berkeley, School of Public Health, Department of Community Health and Human Development, 50 University Hall #7360, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, United States. Electronic address: jdeardorff@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Julianna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deardorff
authors.affiliation: California Department of Public Health, Environmental Health Investigations Branch, 850 Marina Bay Parkway, Building P, 3rd Floor, Richmond, CA 94804, United States. Electronic address: Gayle.Windham@cdph.ca.gov.
authors.forename: Gayle C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Windham
authors.affiliation: University of California at San Francisco, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Box 0560, San Francisco, CA 94143-0560, United States. Electronic address: robert.hiatt@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hiatt
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente, Division of Research, 2000 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612, United States. Electronic address: larry.kushi@kp.org.
authors.forename: Lawrence H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Kushi
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D002648:Child; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000652:urine*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008670:Metals / Q000652:urine*; D044469:Racial Groups; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008670:Metals
keywords: Children; Environmental health disparities; Lead; Metals; Vulnerability