Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA.
Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
Environ Res. 2021 Mar;194:110662. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110662. Epub 2020 Dec 30.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a public health concern given evidence that they persist and accumulate in the environment and can cause toxic effects in animals and humans. However, evaluating adverse effects of PCBs in epidemiologic studies is complicated by the characteristics of PCB exposure. PCBs exist as mixtures in the environment; the mixture changes over time due to degradation, and given physicochemical differences between specific PCB congeners, the mixture that an individual is exposed to (via food, air, or other sources) is likely different from that which can be measured in biological tissues. This is particularly problematic when evaluating toxicity of shorter-lived congeners that may not be measurable by the time biological samples are collected. We review these and other issues that arise when evaluating epidemiologic studies of PCBs and discuss how epidemiology data can still be used to inform both hazard identification and dose-response evaluation.
多氯联苯 (PCBs) 是一个公共卫生关注点，因为有证据表明它们在环境中持续存在并积累，并且会对动物和人类造成毒性影响。然而，在流行病学研究中评估 PCBs 的不良影响是复杂的，因为 PCB 暴露具有特征。PCBs 以混合物的形式存在于环境中；由于降解，混合物会随时间而变化，并且由于特定 PCB 同系物之间存在物理化学差异，个体所接触的混合物（通过食物、空气或其他来源）可能与生物组织中可测量的混合物不同。当评估可能在收集生物样本时无法测量的寿命较短的同系物的毒性时，这尤其成问题。我们回顾了在评估 PCBs 的流行病学研究中出现的这些问题和其他问题，并讨论了流行病学数据如何仍然可以用于为危害识别和剂量反应评估提供信息。
