Temporal Comparison of PBDEs, OH-PBDEs, PCBs, and OH-PCBs in the Serum of Second Trimester Pregnant Women Recruited from San Francisco General Hospital, California

Ami R. Zota *†‡, Linda Linderholm §, June-Soo Park §, Myrto Petreas §, Tan Guo §, Martin L. Privalsky #, R. Thomas Zoeller ●, and Tracey J. Woodruff ‡

^† Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health and Health Services,George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20037, United States

^‡ Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, University of California, San Francisco, Oakland, California 94607, United States

^§ Environmental Chemistry Lab, California Department of Toxic Substances Control, Berkeley, California 94710, United States

 Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm SE-106 48, Sweden

 Sequoia Foundation, La Jolla, California 92037, United States

^# Department of Microbiology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616, United States

^● Biology Department, Morrill Science Center, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States

Abstract 

Prenatal exposures to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) can harm neurodevelopment in humans and animals. In 2003–2004, PentaBDE and OctaBDE were banned in California and phased-out of US production; resulting impacts on human exposures are unknown. We previously reported that median serum concentrations of PBDEs and their metabolites (OH-PBDEs) among second trimester pregnant women recruited from San Francisco General Hospital (2008–2009; n = 25) were the highest among pregnant women worldwide. We recruited another cohort from the same clinic in 2011–2012 (n = 36) and now compare serum concentrations of PBDEs, OH-PBDEs, polychlorinated biphenyl ethers (PCBs) (structurally similar compounds banned in 1979), and OH-PCBs between two demographically similar cohorts. Between 2008–2009 and 2011–2012, adjusted least-squares geometric mean (LSGM) concentrations of ∑PBDEs decreased 65% (95% CI: 18, 130) from 90.0 ng/g lipid (95% CI: 64.7, 125.2) to 54.6 ng/g lipid (95% CI: 39.2, 76.2) (p = 0.004); ∑OH-PBDEs decreased 6-fold (p < 0.0001); and BDE-47, -99, and -100 declined more than BDE-153. There was a modest, nonsignificant (p = 0.13) decline in LSGM concentrations of ∑PCBs and minimal differences in ∑OH-PCBs between 2008–2009 and 2011–2012. PBDE exposures are likely declining due to regulatory action, but the relative stability in PCB exposures suggests PBDE exposures may eventually plateau and persist for decades.

Source: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es402204y