FU Zhong-jian, SUN Gui-lan, SUN Wen, LIU Ling, LI Wei-hong, LI Qiu-ju, WANG De-jun. Exposure levels and correlation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in serum, hair, and nail of workers from a deca-brominated diphenyl ether manufacturing plant[J]. Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 2020, 37(6): 579-585. DOI: 10.13213/j.cnki.jeom.2020.19751
Citation: FU Zhong-jian, SUN Gui-lan, SUN Wen, LIU Ling, LI Wei-hong, LI Qiu-ju, WANG De-jun. Exposure levels and correlation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in serum, hair, and nail of workers from a deca-brominated diphenyl ether manufacturing plant[J]. Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 2020, 37(6): 579-585. DOI: 10.13213/j.cnki.jeom.2020.19751

Exposure levels and correlation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in serum, hair, and nail of workers from a deca-brominated diphenyl ether manufacturing plant

  • Background Deca-brominated diphenyl ether (Deca-BDE) is one of the widely used brominated flame retardants due to its low price and high flame resistance, but it is also considered to have potential environmental pollution and human health risks. Workers occupationally exposed to Deca-BDE tend to have a higher external exposure level and a higher health risk than the general population. Therefore, the monitoring of exposure level of BDE-209 in relevant manufacturing workers is much needed.
    Objective This study measures and further evaluates the correlations of the levels of poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in serum, hair, and nail samples of BDE-209 manufacturing workers.
    Methods Blood, hair, and nail samples were collected from 30 Deca-BDE manufacturing workers of a Deca-BDE manufacturing plant in Shouguang City of Shandong Province. The levels of eight PBDEs (BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-100, BDE-99, BDE-154, BDE-153, BDE-183, and BDE-209) in the three biological matrices were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), respectively. Median (M) (P25, P75), min, and max were used to describe the distributions of PBDEs levels, and then Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses were conducted to explore serum-hair and serum-nail BDE-209 correlations.
    Results All the eight homologues of PBDEs were detected in the serum, nail, and hair samples. The positive rate of BDE-209 in serum reached 100%, and its M (P25, P75) level was 6.39×103 (2.37×103, 2.43×104) ng·g-1 (lipid weight), and the M (P25, P75) level of the other seven PBDEs was 229 (131, 493) ng·g-1 (lipid weight). The M (P25, P75) level of BDE-209 in hair was 1.95×105 (4.01×104, 4.72×105) ng·g-1 (dry weight), the M (P25, P75) level of the remaining seven PBDEs was 5.45×103 (1.58×103, 1.42×104) ng·g-1 (dry weight). The M (P25, P75) level of BDE-209 in nail reached 2.26×106 (9.90×105, 2.90×106) ng·g-1 (dry weight), and the M (P25, P75) level of the remaining seven PBDEs was below limit of detection (LOD) (< LOD, 975) ng·g-1 (dry weight). The correlation analysis results showed the level of BDE-209 in the serum samples was positively correlated with the level of BDE-209 in the hair samples (r=0.625, P < 0.01) and the level of BDE-209 in the nail samples (rs=0.751, P < 0.01).
    Conclusion Deca-BDE manufacturing workers have high exposure levels of BDE-209 and face potential occupational health risks. Hair and nail samples have high application value in the noninvasive biological monitoring of BDE-209 internal exposure level in Deca-BDE manufacturing workers.
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