Zierold Kristina M, Myers John V, Brock Guy N, Zhang Charlie H, Sears Clara G, Sears Lonnie
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, RPHB 534C, 1720 2nd Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35294‑0022, USA.
Department of Biomedical Informatics and Center for Biostatistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Expo Health. 2022 Dec;14(4):903-914. doi: 10.1007/s12403-022-00469-1. Epub 2022 Feb 2.
The prevalence of internalizing behavior disorders in children is increasing. Reasons for increasing anxiety and depression include several factors with a less studied consideration being the potential neurotoxic effects of environmental exposures. One group at risk for environmental exposures is children living near coal-burning power plants with coal ash storage facilities. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between metal(loid) exposures and internalizing behaviors in children aged 6-14 years. Metal(loid)s in nail samples were determined by Proton-Induced X-ray Emission and internalizing behavior problems were obtained from the parent ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist. Results indicated that concentrations of metal(loid)s in nails differ between children with internalizing behaviors and without internalizing behaviors. Logistic regression models suggested that exposure to zinc and imputed zirconium were associated with internalizing behaviors in children. However, when a sex-metal(loid) interaction term was included, none of the metal(loid)s were associated with internalizing behaviors indicating a role of sex differences in neurotoxicity with zinc and copper showing effects only for males. In all models, greater exposure to traffic was associated with internalizing behaviors. Zinc has previously been shown to increase risk for mental health problems, while zirconium has received less attention. Out findings indicate that environmental exposures of zinc and zirconium deserve further attention in studies of childhood internalizing disorders.
儿童内化行为障碍的患病率正在上升。焦虑和抑郁增加的原因包括几个因素，其中较少被研究的一个因素是环境暴露的潜在神经毒性作用。面临环境暴露风险的一组人群是居住在有煤灰储存设施的燃煤发电厂附近的儿童。采用多变量逻辑回归来评估6至14岁儿童的金属（类金属）暴露与内化行为之间的关系。通过质子诱导X射线发射法测定指甲样本中的金属（类金属），内化行为问题则从家长对儿童行为清单的评分中获得。结果表明，有内化行为的儿童和没有内化行为的儿童指甲中的金属（类金属）浓度存在差异。逻辑回归模型表明，锌暴露和估算的锆暴露与儿童的内化行为有关。然而，当纳入性别 - 金属（类金属）交互项时，没有一种金属（类金属）与内化行为相关，这表明性别差异在神经毒性中起作用，锌和铜仅对男性有影响。在所有模型中，更多的交通暴露与内化行为相关。锌此前已被证明会增加心理健康问题的风险，而锆受到的关注较少。我们的研究结果表明，在儿童内化障碍的研究中，锌和锆的环境暴露值得进一步关注。
