Nilsson Sandra, Bräunig Jennifer, Mueller Ava, Sontag Nis-Julius, Langguth Daman, Kennedy Carl, Hobson Peter, Thomas Kevin V, Mueller Jochen F, Toms Leisa-Maree
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, QLD Australia.
Environment Protection Science Branch, NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Lidcombe, NSW Australia.
Expo Health. 2025;17(4):1083-1094. doi: 10.1007/s12403-025-00712-5. Epub 2025 May 20.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a focus of biomonitoring studies globally. In Australia, population PFAS serum concentrations have been determined since 2002 using pooled de-identified serum samples ( = 4800) collected from the population bi-annually, as a component of the Australian Human Biomonitoring (HBM) project. Locations of environmental PFAS contamination ('PFAS hotspots') are known to exist in Australia, but the extent of human exposure at many of these hotspots remains unknown. This study assesses if systematic use of geographical pooling of surplus pathology samples can be effective to identify if elevated PFAS exposure has occurred in populations residing near 'PFAS hotspots'. De-identified surplus pathology serum samples ( > 1800) were obtained and pooled from postcodes near three 'PFAS hotspots'. Samples were analyzed for PFAS and compared with the Australian HBM project. Selected PFAS were consistently higher compared to the Australian HBM project in pools from two of the three 'PFAS hotspots', suggesting that these populations may have experienced elevated exposure to PFAS. This study demonstrates that targeted serum pooling can be an effective tool for determining indications of population exposure to persistent chemicals in communities at risk. The technique has the potential to be used for rapid surveillance and as a trigger for further investigations of populations in proximity to sites with known contamination.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12403-025-00712-5.
全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）是全球生物监测研究的重点。在澳大利亚，自2002年以来，作为澳大利亚人类生物监测（HBM）项目的一部分，每两年从人群中收集汇总的匿名血清样本（n = 4800）来测定人群的PFAS血清浓度。已知澳大利亚存在环境PFAS污染地点（“PFAS热点地区”），但许多这些热点地区的人类接触程度仍不明确。本研究评估系统地利用多余病理样本的地理汇总是否能有效识别居住在“PFAS热点地区”附近的人群是否发生了PFAS暴露升高。从三个“PFAS热点地区”附近的邮政编码区域获取并汇总了超过1800份匿名多余病理血清样本。对样本进行PFAS分析，并与澳大利亚HBM项目进行比较。在三个“PFAS热点地区”中的两个地区的样本库中，选定的PFAS与澳大利亚HBM项目相比始终较高，这表明这些人群可能经历了更高的PFAS暴露。本研究表明，有针对性的血清汇总可以成为确定有风险社区人群接触持久性化学物质迹象的有效工具。该技术有可能用于快速监测，并作为对已知污染地点附近人群进行进一步调查的触发因素。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s12403-025-00712-5获取的补充材料。
