Suchergebnisse

Organochlorine compounds (OCs), including pesticides and polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), were determined in the serum of 499 cord blood samples from infants born during 2004−2006 in Valencia (Spain). The concentrations were found to be correlated with the region of origin of the mothers. Those from Latin-America gave birth to infants with higher 4,4′-DDE and 4,4′-DDT concentrations than those from Europe. On the contrary, European mothers had children with higher concentrations of hexachlorobenzene and PCBs than Latin-American mothers. These associations were independent of maternal period of stage in Valencia. Data examination with a multivariate model including maternal region of origin described 39−44% of the concentration variability of 4,4′-DDE and total PCBs with statistic significance. Other maternal variables found to significantly influence OC burden in newborns were age, education level, and body mass index (BMI). In general, older women, with higher education standards and higher BMI had infants with higher OC serum concentrations than younger women, with lower education scores and low BMI. The increase of 4,4′-DDT in newborns from mothers with high education levels and high BMI suggest that dissimilar maternal diets may be at the origin of some of these OC body burden differences. ; Spanish Ministry of Health and Ministry of Science and Innovation (INMA G03/176, Consolider Ingenio GRACCIE, CSD2007-00067, FIS-FEDER: 03/1615, 04/1112, 04/1509, 04/1666, 05/1987, 06/1213 and 09/2647), Council of Health from the Autonomous Valencian Government (Generalitat Valenciana), Fundacio Roger Torne, and ArcRisk EU Project (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226534). ; Peer reviewed

6 páginas, 2 figuras, 2 tablas. ; Polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were analyzed in blood serum of pregnant women and in cord blood serum of their newborns from a general population cohort (n = 174; Valencia, Spain). The most abundant PBDE congeners identified were BDE 47, BDE 99, BDE 153, BDE 154 and BDE 209. Their cord blood serum concentrations were about 45% of those in maternal serum but after lipid normalization median of total PBDEs was 9.6 ng/g lipid in cord serum (concentrations encompassing between not detected and 140 ng/g lipid) and 9.6 ng/ lipid in maternal serum(concentrations covering between not detected and 120 ng/g lipid). The distributions of these compounds were dominated by BDE 47 in both cases. In cord blood serum the decreasing order of abundance was BDE 47 > BDE 99 > BDE 209 > BDE 153 > BDE 154. The congener composition in maternal serum followed a similar trend: BDE 47 > BDE 153 > BDE 154 > BDE 209 > BDE 99. The congener concentrations exhibited a higher degree of correlation in cord blood than in maternal serum. Use of the maternal determinants for categorization of the observed maternal and fetal PBDE concentrations only showed significant associations for the levels in umbilical cord. Neonates from rural areas exhibited statistically significantly lower concentrations than those from urban, semi-urban or metropolitan sites. Maternal serum also showed this difference but the higher dispersion of the concentrations in maternal serum did not afford its recognition with statistical significance. The lower qualitative and quantitative variability in the PBDE concentrations of cord blood serum than maternal serum suggest that the latter is reflecting PBDE contributions from a wider diversity of sources than the former whereas cord blood sera seems to represent the long term standing stock of these compounds accumulated in the maternal tissues. ; The authors are grateful to the mothers who participated in the study and to Hospital La Fe. Funding was received from the Spanish Ministry of Health and Ministry of Science and Innovation (INMA G03/ 176, Consolider Ingenio GRACCIE, CSD2007-00067, FIS-FEDER: 03/ 1615, 04/1112, 04/1509, 04/1666, 05/1987, 06/1213 and 09/2647), Council of Health from the Autonomous Valencian Government (Generalitat Valenciana), Fundacio Roger Torne and ArcRisk EU Project (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226534) ; Peer reviewed

BACKGROUND: Europe has had a large variability in COVID-19 incidence between and within countries, particularly after June 2020. We aim to assess the variability between European countries and regions located in a given country. METHODS: We used ECDC information including countries having 7 regions or more. The metric used to assess the regional variability within a country was the intercuartilic range in a weekly basis for 32 weeks between June 29(th) 2020 and February 1(st) 2021. We also calculated each country's overall variability across the 32 weeks using the distances from the regional curves of the 14-day incidence rates to the corresponding national curve, using the L(2) metric for functional data. We afterwards standardised this metric to a scale from 0 to 100 points. We repeated the calculations excluding island regions. RESULTS: The variability between and within countries was large. Slovenia, Spain and Portugal have the greatest variability. Spain and Slovenia held also the top three places for the greatest number of weeks (Spain for 19 weeks and Slovenia for 10) with the highest variability. For variability among the incidence curves across the 32-week period, Slovenia, Portugal and Spain ranked first in functional variability, when all the regions were analysed but also when the island regions were excluded. CONCLUSIONS: These differences might be due to how countries tackled the epidemiological situation. The persistent variability in COVID-19 incidence between regions of a given country suggests that governmental action may have an important role in applying epidemiological control measures.

11 páginas, 4 figuras, 6 tablas. ; Prenatal levels of organohalogen compounds (OHCs), including polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), hexachlorocyclohexanes and DDTs have been investigated in two different cohorts from the Spanish Mediterranean area, Valencia and Menorca, by analysis of cord blood serum. Comparison of the observed median concentrations to other cohorts show low PBDE levels (2.8-6.8 ng/g lipid) but high values of HCB (0.68 ng/ml, 260 ng/g lipid) and PCBs (0.65 ng/ml, 240 ng/g lipid) in the cohort of Menorca indicating that Mediterranean areas, and not only high latitude regions, may contain population groups highly exposed to some of these pollutants. Significant differences in the concentrations of these compounds have been found between the two cohorts. Differences in maternal population such as age or body mass index cannot explain this variation. One possible cause of variability is the seven year time period elapsed between the two cohort recruitments but the strong differences observed do not allow exclusion of local diet differences. Thus, the different average PCB congener distributions between the two cohorts suggests an influence from materials containing diverse PCB mixtures. The congener mixtures found in Menorca could reflect a diet contribution from some western Mediterranean fish species. These results provide baseline information on prenatal OHC background levels in the Mediterranean area. ; The authors are grateful to the mothers who participated in the study and to Hospital La Fe. Funding was received from the Spanish Ministry of Health and Ministry of Science and Innovation (INMA G03/176, Consolider Ingenio GRACCIE, CSD2007-00067, FIS-FEDER: 03/1615, 04/1112, 04/1509, 04/1666, 05/1987, 06/1213 and 09/2647), Council of Health from the Autonomous Valencian Government (Generalitat Valenciana), Fundacio Roger Torne and ArcRisk EU Project (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226534). ; Peer reviewed