User menu

Accès à distance ? S'identifier sur le proxy UCLouvain

Impact of iron and steel industry and waste incinerators on human exposure to dioxins, PCBs, and heavy metals: results of a cross-sectional study in Belgium.

Primary tabs

Fierens, Sébastien [UCL] Mairesse, Hélène [UCL] Heilier, Jean-François [UCL] Focant, Jean-François Eppe, Gauthier Bernard, Alfred [UCL]

We evaluated the impact of two iron and steel plants and two municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) in Wallonia (Belgium) on the exposure of residents to dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals. In total, 142 volunteers living around these facilities were recruited and compared with 63 referents from a rural area with no industrial source of pollution. Information about smoking habits, dietary habits, anthropometric characteristics, residential history, and health status was obtained from a self-administered questionnaire. The volunteers provided blood under fasting conditions in order to evaluate the body burden of dioxins (17 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans [PCDD/Fs] congeners) and PCBs. Samples of blood and urine were also taken for the determination of cadmium, mercury, and lead. After adjustment for covariates, concentrations of cadmium, mercury, and lead in urine or blood were not increased in subjects living in the vicinity of MSWIs or sinter plants by comparison with referents. Residents around the sinter plants and the MSWI located in the industrial area had concentrations of dioxins and PCBs in serum similar to that of referents. By contrast, subjects living in the vicinity of the MSWI in the rural area showed significantly higher serum levels of dioxins (geometric mean, 38 vs. 24 pg TEQ/g fat) and coplanar PCBs (geometric mean, 10.8 vs. 7.0 pg TEQ/g fat). Although age-adjusted dioxin levels in referents did not vary with local animal fat consumption, concentrations of dioxins in subjects living around the incinerators correlated positively with their intake of local animal fat, with almost a doubling in subjects with the highest fat intake. These results indicate that dioxins and coplanar PCBs emitted by MSWIs can indeed accumulate in the body of residents who regularly consume animal products of local origin.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Access type Accès restreint
Publication date 2007
Journal information "Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part A" - Vol. 70, no. 3-4, p. 222-6 (2007)
Peer reviewed yes
issn 1528-7394
Publication status Publié
Affiliation UCL - MD/ESP - Ecole de santé publique
MESH Subject Adult ; Air Pollutants - blood - urine ; Air Pollution ; Belgium ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Dioxins - blood - urine ; Environmental Exposure - statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Incineration ; Iron ; Male ; Metallurgy - standards ; Metals, Heavy - blood - urine ; Middle Aged ; Polychlorinated Biphenyls - blood - urine ; Refuse Disposal - instrumentation ; Steel
Links
  1. Anderson David R, Fisher Raymond, Sources of dioxins in the United Kingdom: the steel industry and other sources, 10.1016/s0045-6535(01)00178-3
  2. Bernard Alfred, Broeckaert Fabrice, De Poorter Geert, De Cock Ann, Hermans Cédric, Saegerman Claude, Houins Gilbert, The Belgian PCB/Dioxin Incident: Analysis of the Food Chain Contamination and Health Risk Evaluation, 10.1006/enrs.2001.4274
  3. Buekens A., Stieglitz L., Hell K., Huang H., Segers P., Dioxins from thermal and metallurgical processes: recent studies for the iron and steel industry, 10.1016/s0045-6535(00)00247-2
  4. Cardenas A., Br. J. Ind. Med, 50, 17 (1993)
  5. Everaert K, Baeyens J, The formation and emission of dioxins in large scale thermal processes, 10.1016/s0045-6535(01)00143-6
  6. Focant Jean-François, De Pauw Edwin, Fast automated extraction and clean-up of biological fluids for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls analysis, 10.1016/s1570-0232(02)00343-4
  7. Focant Jean-François, Eppe Gauthier, Pirard Catherine, De Pauw Edwin, Fast clean-up for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls analysis of high-fat-content biological samples, 10.1016/s0021-9673(01)01047-0
  8. Gilpin R. K., Dioxins and health, 55 (2003)
  9. Kiviranta H, Vartiainen T, Verta M, Tuomisto JT, Tuomisto J, High fish-specific dioxin concentrations in Finland, 10.1016/s0140-6736(00)02296-0
  10. Lisk Donald J., Environmental implications of incineration of municipal solid waste and ash disposal, 10.1016/0048-9697(88)90128-3
  11. Schecter Arnold, Startin James, Wright Christopher, Kelly Mitchell, Papke Olaf, Lis Anton, Ball Michael, Olson James R., Congener-Specific Levels of Dioxins and Dibenzofurans in U.S. Food and Estimated Daily Dioxin Toxic Equivalent Intake, 10.2307/3431919
  12. M. Schuhmacher, J. Domingo, M. Agramunt, A. Bocio, L. Müller, Biological monitoring of metals and organic substances in hazardous-waste incineration workers, 10.1007/s00420-002-0340-6
  13. Startin J. R., Dioxins and health, 89 (2003)
  14. Van den Berg M, Birnbaum L, Bosveld A T, Brunström B, Cook P, Feeley M, Giesy J P, Hanberg A, Hasegawa R, Kennedy S W, Kubiak T, Larsen J C, van Leeuwen F X, Liem A K, Nolt C, Peterson R E, Poellinger L, Safe S, Schrenk D, Tillitt D, Tysklind M, Younes M, Waern F, Zacharewski T, Toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) for PCBs, PCDDs, PCDFs for humans and wildlife, 10.1289/ehp.98106775
  15. Wittsiepe Jürgen, Schrey Petra, Ewers Ulrich, Selenka Fidelis, Wilhelm Michael, Decrease of PCDD/F levels in human blood from Germany over the past ten years (1989–1998), 10.1016/s0045-6535(99)00359-8
  16. Zook Douglas R., Rappe Christoffer, Environmental Sources, Distribution, and Fate of Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins, Dibenzofurans, and Related Organochlorines, Dioxins and Health (1994) ISBN:9781489914644 p.79-113, 10.1007/978-1-4899-1462-0_3
Bibliographic reference Fierens, Sébastien ; Mairesse, Hélène ; Heilier, Jean-François ; Focant, Jean-François ; Eppe, Gauthier ; et. al. Impact of iron and steel industry and waste incinerators on human exposure to dioxins, PCBs, and heavy metals: results of a cross-sectional study in Belgium.. In: Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part A, Vol. 70, no. 3-4, p. 222-6 (2007)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/10899