Health Effects of PCBs in Residences and Schools (HESPERUS): PCB – health Cohort Profile

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Elvira Vaclavik Bräuner, University of Copenhagen; Zorana Jovanovic Andersen, University of Copenhagen; Marie Frederiksen, Aalborg University; Ina Olmer Specht, University of Copenhagen; Karin Sørig Hougaard, National Research Centre for the Working Environment; Niels Ebbehøj, University of Copenhagen; Janice Bailey, Université Laval; Aleksander Giwercman, Lund University; Nelson Steenland, Emory University; Matthew Paul Longnecker, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Jens Peter Bonde, University of Copenhagen
• Language: English
• Date: 2016-04-19
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep24571
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Scientific Reports
• Volume: 6
• Start Page: 24571
• End Page: 24571
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and in part by a starting grant for National Institutes of Health applications from the Capital region of Denmark.
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Toxicology; Health Sciences, Epidemiology; Environmental Sciences

Abstract

Polychlorinated-biphenyls (PCBs) were introduced in the late 1920s and used until the 1970s when they were banned in most countries due to evidence of environmental build-up and possible adverse health effects. However they still persist in the environment, indoors and in humans. Indoor air in contaminated buildings may confer airborne exposure markedly above background regional PCB levels. To date, no epidemiological studies have assessed the health effects from exposure to semi-volatile PCBs in the indoor environment. Indoor air PCBs are generally less chlorinated than PCBs that are absorbed via the diet, or via past occupational exposure; therefore their health effects require separate risk assessment. Two separate cohorts of individuals who have either attended schools (n = 66,769; 26% exposed) or lived in apartment buildings (n = 37,185; 19% exposed), where indoor air PCB concentrations have been measured were created. An individual estimate of long-term airborne PCB exposure was assigned based on measurements. The cohorts will be linked to eight different national data sources on mortality, school records, residential history, socioeconomic status, and chronic disease and reproductive outcomes. The linking of indoor air exposures with health outcomes provides a dataset unprecedented worldwide. We describe a project, called HESPERUS (Health Effects of PCBs in Residences and Schools), which will be the first study of the long term health effects of the lower-chlorinated, semi-volatile PCBs in the indoor environment.