PFAS Exposure and Health Effects in El Paso County, Colorado

项目概要/摘要 这项研究的总体目标是量化测量和测量之间的横截面关联， 高度暴露的成人和儿童中的模拟全氟烷基和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）， 选定的健康结果，包括血脂、肾功能、肝功能、甲状腺激素和性激素， 儿童的血糖和胰岛素参数、免疫功能标志物和神经行为结果。我们 将从科罗拉多埃尔帕索县的一个社区招募1,000名成年人和400名儿童， 由于使用PFAS而导致的市政饮用水和私人威尔斯井的PFAS污染水平 水成膜泡沫（AFFF）用于美国空军基地附近的消防活动。暴露于PFAS 将通过测量的血清浓度和通过详细的模型来重建历史 埃尔帕索县地下水和饮用水中的全氟辛烷磺酸浓度。将这些信息与 个人的居住历史，我们将能够估计累积终身暴露于AFFF相关PFAS 在埃尔帕索县的每一个研究参与者。我们的研究团队完全有资格实现这一目标，因为我们 接触科学（Adgate）、环境流行病学（Starling）、PFAS 化学和饮用水暴露（Higgins，Vestergren），地下水建模（Singha，McCray）， 神经行为测试（Wilkening），癌症流行病学（Cockburn）， 观测数据（Glueck）和社区外展和教育（Richardson，Celico）。我们已经进行 在埃尔帕索县进行的试点研究，证明了招募参与者完成研究的可行性 类似于ATSDR协议中的程序。初步研究结果表明：（1）一种独特的 全氟己烷磺酸（PFHxS）中位浓度超过 是美国普通人群中位数的10倍，（2）AFFF相关PFAS的显著差异 按地理区域分列的暴露情况，埃尔帕索境内的血清浓度存在明显的南北梯度 县除了共同的核心协议，我们提出了两个发起人的目标：（1）一个高度 PFAS与睾丸和甲状腺相关生物标志物之间关联的创新研究 癌症风险（先前在人类和动物研究中发现与PFAS暴露可能相关）， 以及（2）应用新的统计方法来估计暴露于复合物的综合效应 AFFF污染的饮用水中发现的PFAS混合物，并分离单个PFAS的影响 相关的混合物。这项研究填补了一个重要的知识空白，因为人口众多， 美国各州已通过受污染的饮用水暴露于AFFF衍生的PFAS。完成 这些目标将为社区、研究人员和决策者提供必要的信息， 了解与这种新出现的PFAS暴露特征相关的健康风险。

Project Summary/Abstract The overall goal of this research is to quantify the cross-sectional associations between measured and modeled perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in highly exposed adults and children and selected health outcomes, including lipids, kidney function, liver function, thyroid hormones and sex hormones, glucose and insulin parameters, markers of immune function, and neurobehavioral outcomes in children. We will enroll 1,000 adults and 400 children from a community in El Paso County, Colorado who experienced high levels of PFAS contamination of their municipal drinking water and private wells resulting from the use of aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) for firefighting activities at a nearly US Air Force Base. Exposure to PFAS will be assessed via measured serum concentrations and through a detailed model to reconstruct historical PFAS concentrations in groundwater and drinking water in El Paso County. Combining this information with individual residential histories, we will be able to estimate cumulative lifetime exposure to AFFF-related PFAS in El Paso County for each study participant. Our research team is well qualified to achieve this goal due to our complementary expertise in exposure science (Adgate), environmental epidemiology (Starling), PFAS chemistry and drinking water exposure (Higgins, Vestergren), groundwater modeling (Singha, McCray), neurobehavioral testing (Wilkening), cancer epidemiology (Cockburn), statistical methods for the analysis of observational data (Glueck), and community outreach and education (Richardson, Celico). We have conducted a pilot study in El Paso County that demonstrates the feasibility of recruiting participants to complete study procedures similar to those in the ATSDR protocol. The preliminary results of our pilot study show: (1) a unique AFFF-related exposure profile with median concentrations of perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) more than ten times the median of the general US population, and (2) prominent differences in AFFF-related PFAS exposure by geographic area with an apparent north-south gradient in serum concentrations within El Paso County. In addition to the common core protocol, we propose two investigator-initiated aims: (1) a highly innovative examination of the association between PFAS and biomarkers linked to testicular and thyroid cancer risk (both previously identified in human and animal studies as potentially related to PFAS exposure), and (2) the application of novel statistical methods to estimate the combined effect of exposure to the complex mixture of PFAS found in AFFF-contaminated drinking water, and to separate the effects of individual PFAS from the correlated mixture. This research fills an important knowledge gap because populations in numerous US states have been exposed to AFFF-derived PFAS via contaminated drinking water. The completion of these aims will provide essential information for communities, researchers, and policymakers seeking to understand the health risks associated with this emerging PFAS exposure profile.