Department of Respiratory Medicine, Shanghai Children's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Grande Prairie General Hospital, Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr;30(18):53948-53961. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-26119-w. Epub 2023 Mar 4.
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) constitute an environmentally persistent and widespread class of anthropogenic chemicals that have been used in industrial and commercial applications in the USA and around the world. Animal studies suggested its toxic impact on lung development, but the adverse effect of PFAS exposure on childhood pulmonary function has not been clearly determined. We investigated the potential cross-sectional association of environmental PFAS exposures with pulmonary function in 765 adolescents aged 12-19 years from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2012. Exposure to PFASs was estimated by measuring serum concentrations, and pulmonary function was assessed by spirometry. Linear regression and weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression were performed to estimate the associations of individual chemicals and chemical mixtures with pulmonary function. Median concentrations of PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, and PFHxS (detection frequencies > 90%) were 2.70, 6.40, 0.98, and 1.51 ng/mL, respectively. No associations were found between the four individual congeners and ΣPFASs and the pulmonary function measures in total adolescents. Sensitive analyses were further conducted stratified by age (12-15 and 16-19 years) and sex (boys and girls). In adolescents aged 12-15 years, PFNA was negatively associated with FEV:FVC (p-trend = 0.007) and FEF (p-trend = 0.03) among girls, while PFNA was positively associated with FEV: FVC (p-trend = 0.018) among boys. No associations were found among adolescents aged 16-19 years, either boys or girls. The aforementioned associations were confirmed when further applying WQS models, and PFNA was identified to be the most heavily weighing chemical. Our results suggested that environmental exposure to PFNA may affect pulmonary function among adolescents aged 12-15 years. Given the cross-sectional analysis and less consistent results, further replications of the association in large prospective cohort studies are warranted.
全氟烷基物质（PFASs）是一类在环境中持久存在且广泛分布的人造化学物质，已在美国和世界各地的工业和商业应用中使用。动物研究表明其对肺部发育具有毒性影响，但 PFAS 暴露对儿童肺功能的不良影响尚未明确确定。我们调查了美国国家健康和营养检查调查（NHANES）2007-2012 年期间 765 名 12-19 岁青少年的环境 PFAS 暴露与肺功能之间的潜在横断面关联。通过测量血清浓度来估计 PFASs 的暴露情况，通过肺活量测定法评估肺功能。进行线性回归和加权分位数总和（WQS）回归，以估计单个化学物质和化学混合物与肺功能的关联。（检测频率>90%）PFOA、PFOS、PFNA 和 PFHxS 的中位数浓度分别为 2.70、6.40、0.98 和 1.51ng/mL。在所有青少年中，四种单体同系物和ΣPFASs 与肺功能测量值之间没有关联。进一步按年龄（12-15 岁和 16-19 岁）和性别（男孩和女孩）进行敏感分析。在 12-15 岁的青少年中，PFNA 与女孩的 FEV：FVC（p 趋势=0.007）和 FEF（p 趋势=0.03）呈负相关，而 PFNA 与男孩的 FEV：FVC（p 趋势=0.018）呈正相关。在 16-19 岁的青少年中，无论是男孩还是女孩，都没有发现关联。当进一步应用 WQS 模型时，上述关联得到了证实，并且 PFNA 被确定为权重最大的化学物质。我们的结果表明，环境中 PFNA 的暴露可能会影响 12-15 岁青少年的肺功能。鉴于横断面分析和结果不太一致，需要在大型前瞻性队列研究中进一步复制该关联。
