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| 2. |
- Bergkvist, Charlotte
(författare)
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Characterizing life-long human exposure to persistent environmental pollutants
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Humans are exposed to a variety of potentially harmful contaminants on a daily basis. Characterizing the exposure in different subgroups of the general population is important in order to protect public health sufficiently. The overall aim of this thesis was to refine human exposure assessment by applying different methodological approaches for characterizing the exposure to harmful contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in different subgroups of the Swedish general population. We assessed the exposure to PCBs and PCDD/Fs in breastfed infants (up to 6 months of age), children and adolescents (1 – 24 year of age) and first-time mothers based on food consumption data (1989) and contaminant concentrations in food (1998 - 2004) and breast milk (2000 - 2006). A food concentration database was developed for the assessment of food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)-based PCB153 exposure in middle-aged and elderly women (born 1914 - 1948). Median exposure to PCBs and PCDD/Fs declined from 44 pg/kg body weight in 1 month old breastfed infants to less than 1.4 pg/kg body weight in adults 15 - 40 years of age. The proportion of individuals exceeding the current TDI of 2 pg TEQ/kg body weight decreased from 100% in infants and young children to less than 26% in adults. Mean exposure to PCBs and PCDD/Fs was comparable when using either the probabilistic or the deterministic approach, whereas the deterministic worst-case scenario estimate was up to 1.7 times higher than the probabilistic estimated 95th percentile. We obtained a reasonable validity of the FFQ for estimating concurrent (Spearman correlation rs 0.37; p<0.001) and long-term (rs 0.32; p<0.05) dietary PCB153 exposure assessment against serum PCB153 concentrations. Based on the validated FFQ we found a significantly increased risk (hazard ratio 1.67; 95% CI 1.17 – 2.40) of myocardial infarction in middle-aged and elderly women of the highest exposure group (median 280 ng/day) compared to the lowest (median 98 ng/day) using a Cox regression model. Highly exposed individuals were characterized by a high fish consumption independent of age. A high dietary PCB153 exposure and a low intake of fish fatty acids (<0.20 g/day of EPA - DHA) were associated with a greater risk of myocardial infarction (hazard ratio 2.22; 95% CI 1.25 to 3.94) compared to a low exposure and a high intake of EPA and DHA (> 0.29 g/day). Thus, continued actions are needed to reduce environmental levels and at the same time conduct risk-benefit analysis for efficient dietary recommendations. This thesis provides new and detailed knowledge of exposure to environmental contaminants in different subgroups of the population by using different methodological approaches, necessary to increase the precision in the exposure estimates. Refining the exposure assessment is a prerequisite for sustaining public health.
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| 3. |
- Bergkvist, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Validation of questionnaire-based long-term dietary exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls using biomarkers
- 2012
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Ingår i: Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. - : Wiley. - 1613-4125 .- 1613-4133. ; 56:11, s. 1748-1754
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scope The health consequences of lifelong low-level exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) via food are largely unknown, mainly due to the lack of large population-based prospective studies addressing this issue. We validated long-term food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)-based dietary PCB exposure against concentrations of six PCB congeners in serum. Methods and results Dietary PCB exposure was estimated in the Swedish Mammography Cohort by constructing a recipe-based database of CB-153, an indicator for total PCBs in food. The Spearman rank correlation (adjusted for within-person variability) was assessed between concurrent (20042006), past (1997), and long-term (mean of 1997 and 20042006) FFQ-based dietary PCB exposure, respectively, and the following serum PCB congeners, CB-118, CB-138, CB-153, CB-156, CB-170, and CB-180, in women (5685 years of age, n = 201). The correlation between FFQ-based dietary PCB exposure and serum CB-153 was 0.41 (p < 0.001) for the concurrent (median 1.6 ng/kg body weight) and 0.34 (p < 0.05) for the past (median 2.6 ng/kg body weight) exposure assessment. Long-term validity of FFQ-based PCB estimates and the six serum PCB congeners ranged from 0.30 to 0.58 (p < 0.05). Conclusion FFQ-based PCB exposure estimates show acceptable validity in relation to PCB concentrations in serum, justifying their use in large-scale epidemiological studies.
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| 4. |
- Julin, Bettina, et al.
(författare)
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Cadmium in Diet and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Women
- 2013
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Ingår i: Epidemiology. - : LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. - 1044-3983 .- 1531-5487. ; 24:6, s. 880-885
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The toxic metal cadmium is suggested to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but only one incidence study has explored this association. We evaluated the association between quartiles of food frequency questionnaire-based estimates of cadmium exposure from food (the predominant source of exposure to the metal) and incident cardiovascular disease and its subtypes. Methods: From the population-based Swedish Mammography cohort, 33,333 women were followed prospectively from baseline (1997) through 2010. We estimated relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using Cox proportional hazard models. Results: During 12 years of follow-up, we identified 3155 incident cases of total cardiovascular disease (1322 cases of myocardial infarction and 1833 cases of total stroke [1485 ischemic and 208 hemorrhagic stroke]). Dietary cadmium exposure was not associated with risk of total cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, or total stroke or its subtypes. For total cardiovascular disease, the multivariable-adjusted RR comparing the highest quartile of cadmium exposure with the lowest was 0.96 (95% CI = 0.85-1.09). The corresponding RRs were 1.07 (0.88-1.29) for myocardial infarction, 0.90 (0.76-1.05) for total stroke, 0.89 (0.74-1.06) for ischemic stroke, and 1.11 (0.68-1.80) for hemorrhagic stroke. Conclusions: Our study lends no support to an overall association between low-level exposure to cadmium via food and incident cardiovascular disease.
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