| Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) and Bioaccumulative Hydroxylated PBDE Metabolites in Young Humans from Managua, Nicaragua Maria Athanasiadou,1 Steven N. Cuadra,2,3 Göran Marsh,1 Åke Bergman,1 and Kristina Jakobsson2 1Department of Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua–Managua (UNAN–Managua), Managua, Nicaragua; 3Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden Abstract
Objective: Our aim was to investigate exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in a young urban population in a developing country, with focus on potentially highly exposed children working informally as scrap scavengers at a large municipal waste disposal site. We also set out to investigate whether hydroxylated metabolites, which not hitherto have been found retained in humans, could be detected. Methods: We assessed PBDEs in pooled serum samples obtained in 2002 from children 11–15 years of age, working and sometimes also living at the municipal waste disposal site in Managua, and in nonworking urban children. The influence of fish consumption was evaluated in the children and in groups of women 15–44 years of age who differed markedly in their fish consumption. Hydroxylated PBDEs were assessed as their methoxylated derivates. The chemical analyses were performed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, using authentic reference substances. Results: The children living and working at the waste disposal site showed very high levels of medium brominated diphenyl ethers. The levels observed in the referent children were comparable to contemporary observations in the United States. The exposure pattern was consistent with dust being the dominating source. The children with the highest PBDE levels also had the highest levels of hydroxylated metabolites. Conclusions: Unexpectedly, very high levels of PBDEs were found in children from an urban area in a developing country. Also, for the first time, hydroxylated PBDE metabolites were found to bioaccumulate in human serum. Key words: brominated flame retardants, BFRs, children, fish consumption, human exposure, inhalation, metabolism, OH-PBDEs, waste disposal site. Environ Health Perspect 116:400–408 (2008) . doi:10.1289/ehp.10713 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 21 November 2007]
Address correspondence to K. Jakobsson, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University Hospital, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden. Telephone: 46 46 173177. Fax: 46 46 173180. E-mail: kristina.jakobsson@med.lu.se We thank D. Hernandez Romero, M. Jiménez, G. Sequeira, A. Salinas, and the staffs of the Centro Dos Generaciones, the Chateles Project, and the local Health Centers for their extensive cooperation during the field work. We are indebted to E. Fält for her excellent assistance in the analytical part of the project. I. Athanassiadis was skillful in performing the mass spectrometry analyses. The map was elaborated by E. Stroh, GIS-center, Lund University, Sweden, using material provided courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, Austin, TX, USA. The study was performed within the framework of a multidisciplinary cooperation between the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) and Lund University, Sweden. The study was funded by the Swedish International Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries, SAREC, the Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden, and Stockholm University, Sweden. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 27 July 2007 ; accepted 20 November 2007.
Correction In the original manuscript published online, BDE-153 and BDE-154 were reversed in position in Figure 2 ; they have been corrected here.
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