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Environmental exposure to organochlorine pesticides and deficits in cochlear status in children

  • 12th IHPA Forum and selected studies on POPs
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Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the hypothesis that organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β-HCH), and 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (p,p′-DDT) and its metabolite 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (p,p′- DDE) are ototoxic to humans. A multivariate general linear model was designed, in which the statistical relation between blood serum concentrations of HCB, β-HCH, p,p′-DDT, or p,p′-DDE at different ages (at birth, 6, 16, and 45 months) and the distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) was treated as multivariate outcome variables. Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and OCPs were strongly correlated in serum of children from our cohort. To ascertain that the association between DPOAEs at a given frequency and concentration of a pesticide is not influenced by PCBs or other OCP also present in serum, we calculated benchmark concentrations (BMCs) relating DPOAEs to a serum pesticide alone and in presence of confounding PCB-153 or other OCPs. We found that BMCs relating DPOAEs to serum pesticides are not affected by confounders. DPOAE amplitudes were associated with serum OCPs at all investigated time intervals, however, in a positive way with prenatal exposure and in a negative way with all postnatal exposures. We observed tonotopicity in the association of pesticides with amplitude of DPOAEs as its strength was frequency dependent. We conclude that exposure to OCPs in infancy at environmental concentrations may be associated with hearing deficits.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the EU 5th Framework Programme project “Evaluating human health risk from low-dose and long-term PCB exposure” QLK4-CT-2000-00488 (PCBRISK), and the EU 7th Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement OBELIX 227391. Support was also provided by the US National Institutes of Health grants R01 CA096525, R03 TW007152, P30 ES001247, and K12 ES019852. Additional funding was provided by the project “Center of Excellence of Environmental Health”, ITMS No. 26240120033, based on the supporting Operational Research and Development Program financed from the European Regional Development Fund, by Slovak Research and Development Agency grants APVT-21-016804, APVV-0571-12, and APVV-0444-11 and “Environmental PCB exposure and hearing impairment”, SK-IT-0040-08, a Slovak-Italian Science and Technology Cooperation. We thank Lýdia Miklošová for providing their expertise in audiological assessment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Hygiene, INAIL, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy

    Renata Sisto

  2. Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Arturo Moleti

  3. Department of Environmental Medicine, Slovak Medical University, Limbová 12, 83303, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ľubica Palkovičová Murínová, Kinga Lancz, Juraj Tihányi, Eva Šovčíková & Tomáš Trnovec

  4. Institute of Biophysics, Informatics and Biostatistics, Slovak Medical University, Limbová 12, 83303, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Soňa Wimmerová

  5. Department of Toxic Organic Pollutants, Slovak Medical University, Limbová 12, 83303, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Kamil Čonka

  6. Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Irva Hertz-Picciotto

  7. Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 265 Crittenden Blvd, CU420644, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA

    Todd A. Jusko

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  1. Renata Sisto
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  2. Arturo Moleti
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  3. Ľubica Palkovičová Murínová
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  10. Todd A. Jusko
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  11. Tomáš Trnovec
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Correspondence to Tomáš Trnovec.

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Sisto, R., Moleti, A., Palkovičová Murínová, Ľ. et al. Environmental exposure to organochlorine pesticides and deficits in cochlear status in children. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 14570–14578 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4690-5

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