title: Association of Geography and Ambient Air Pollution with Urine Metal Concentrations in Six US Cities: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.
abstract: We investigated the associations of urinary concentrations of antimony, cadmium, tungsten and uranium with geographic locations and with ambient air pollution in 304 adults in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis from six US cities. After adjustment for sociodemographics, body mass index, and smoking status, urinary cadmium was the highest in Winston-Salem among all study sites (the geometric mean [GM] in Winston-Salem was 0.84 µg/L [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.57-1.22]). The adjusted GMs of urinary tungsten and uranium were highest in Los Angeles (0.11 µg/L [95% CI 0.08-0.16] and 0.019 µg/L [95% CI 0.016-0.023], respectively). The adjusted GM ratio comparing fine particulate matter (PM2.5) tertiles 2 and 3 with the lowest tertile were 1.64 (95% CI 1.05-2.56) and 3.55 (95% CI 2.24-5.63) for tungsten, and 1.18 (95% CI 0.94-1.48) and 1.70 (95% CI 1.34-2.14) for uranium. The results for tungsten remained similar after adjustment for study site. Urinary cadmium, tungsten and uranium concentrations differed by geographic locations in MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) communities. PM2.5 levels could contribute to geographic differences in tungsten exposure. These findings highlight the need to implement preventive strategies to decrease toxic metal exposure and to evaluate the health effects of chronic exposure to those metals.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. yuanjie.p@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yuanjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. mjone132@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Miranda R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Departments of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. mtellezp@gmail.com.|Fundacion de Investigacion Hospital Clinico de Valencia INCLIVA, Valencia 46010, Spain. mtellezp@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tellez-Plaza
authors.affiliation: Departments of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. eguallar@jhu.edu.|Departments of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. eguallar@jhu.edu.|Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. eguallar@jhu.edu.|Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. eguallar@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Eliseo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guallar
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. dvaidya@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Dhananjay
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vaidya
authors.affiliation: Departments of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. wpost@jhmi.edu.|Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. wpost@jhmi.edu.|Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. wpost@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Wendy S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Post
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. joelk@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Joel D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. jacd@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Delaney
authors.affiliation: Departments of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. anavasa1@jhu.edu.|Departments of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. anavasa1@jhu.edu.|Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. anavasa1@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Navas-Acien
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002947:Cities; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000652:urine*; D008875:Middle Aged; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis; D014481:United States; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D052638:Particulate Matter
keywords: air pollution; exposure modeling; geography; metals