Abstract
ABSTRACT Several studies have stated the harmful effects of PM2.5 to population health, including disruption of neurological development. However, the mechanism behind the neurodevelopmental effects of ambient PM2.5 and postnatal PBDEs and OCPs exposure is still unknown. Our goal was to determine influence of breastmilk residues, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), to the infants’ neurodevelopment with respect to high and low PM2.5 exposure areas. The participants were recruited from high PM2.5 exposure areas (n = 32) and low PM2.5 exposure areas (n = 23) of southern Taiwan. The extracted 14 PBDEs and 20 OCPs compounds were analyzed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometer. The infants, aging from 8-12 months, were examined by Bayley Scales of Infants and Toddlers Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) for neurodevelopment. Results showed that high PM2.5 exposure caused reduced head circumference and had significant effects on the motor skill and social emotional development. For breastmilk PBDEs, a positive correlation between BDE-196 and social emotion, after multivariate analysis with adjustment of confounders, was observed while BDE-99, 196, 197, and 207 showed higher magnitudes in low PM2.5 areas than in high PM2.5 areas. For OCPs, only γ- hexachlorcyclohexanes (γ-HCH) presented the significant difference between high and low PM2.5 exposure areas. Most breastmilk OCPs residues, including 4,4’-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (4,4’-DDT), γ-HCH, endrin, and heptachlor epoxide showed negative impact on the Bayley-III scores after multivariate analysis. In conclusion, infants’ neurodevelopment was significantly correlated with the location of PM2.5 exposure and breastmilk intake of certain PBDEs and OCPs. Breastmilk OCPs might obviously affect infants’ neurodevelopment more compared to breastmilk PBDEs based on our finding. Moreover, this study further employs awareness about viable effects of PM2.5 in infants’ neurodevelopment.
Highlights
Particulate matters (PMs) are a complex mixture of organic and inorganic substances that are suspended in air, which consists of sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust, and water (WHO, 2016)
In a study conducted by Schembari et al (2015), they found out that there was a positively significant correlation between PM2.5 exposure and decrease in the head circumference in British Caucasian birth population and it was in agreement with our result
Our finding suggests that BDE-207 is the most statistically negative congener among BDE-99,196, and 197, and the same result was demonstrated by Lin et al (2010), in which they found out that the postnatal exposure of infants to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) via ingestion of breastmilk have shown that high levels of BDE
Summary
Particulate matters (PMs) are a complex mixture of organic and inorganic substances that are suspended in air, which consists of sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust, and water (WHO, 2016). PMs are classified according to their morphology and elemental composition as geogenic, anthropogenic, and biogenic aerosols usually obtained from vehicular emissions, biomass burning, re-suspended road/soil dust (Zeb et al, 2018), firecracker burning, and kitchen fumes (Shen et al, 2019). Several other factors such as relative humidity, seasonal change, and transboundary pollution can contribute to the levels of PMs in the environment (Chen et al, 2019). The infant’s health is extremely susceptible to the air pollutant, PM2.5, and it can be considered as a toxic precursor to the impairment of a child’s neurodevelopment
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