Associations between blood arsenic and urinary arsenic species concentrations as an exposure characterization tool

Blood arsenic has various toxicities including carcinogenicity, but urinary concentrations are often substituted to determine the exposure level. Since there is little information on the relation of urinary arsenic species to blood arsenic, the aim was to investigate relationships between blood total arsenic (T-As) and the urinary species adjusted by creatinine and specific gravity (SG). Blood and spot urine samples were collected from 109 Japanese subjects aged 18-66 years without occupational exposure. Positive correlations of blood T-As (median, 3.49 μg/L) with urinary creatinine-adjusted and SG-adjusted T-As and arsenobetaine were statistically significant and greater than those with the unadjusted ones. The magnitude of associations of blood T-As with creatinine-adjusted arsenic species was significantly larger than those with unadjusted or SG-adjusted ones. Most of the correlation coefficients among urinary arsenic species concentrations were significant in three adjustment methods, but there was not a significant correlation between monomethylarsonic acid and arsenobetaine after urinary creatinine and SG corrections. Given multiple regression analysis, plasma T-As concentrations showed significant relations to creatinine-adjusted T-As, dimethylarsinic acid, and arsenobetaine concentrations, but erythrocyte T-As did hardly reflect the variation of urinary arsenic species. In conclusion, creatinine-adjusted arsenic concentrations are suggested to be the most appropriate predictor of blood T-As; by contrast, use of the urinary unadjusted arsenic concentration may result in a misleading interpretation of inorganic arsenic toxicity because the associations between inorganic and organic arsenic species based on the unadjusted concentration were mutually close. Plasma T-As appeared to be the best indicator of low-level exposure in blood samples.

Urinary excretion and daily intake rates of diethyl phthalate in the general Canadian population

We have analyzed the trends in the body-weight-adjusted urinary monoethyl phthalate (MEP) concentrations and the diethyl ethyl phthalate (DEP) daily intake estimates in the general Canadian population (aged 6-49 years) using the Canadian Health Measures Survey 2007-2009 dataset. The creatinine correction approach, as well as the urine volume approach in a simple one compartment model were used to calculate the daily urinary MEP excretion rates and DEP intake rates in individual survey participants. Using multiple regression models, we have estimated least square geometric means (LSGMs) of body-weight-adjusted MEP concentration, daily excretion and intake rates among different age groups and sex. We observed that body weight affects the trends in the MEP concentrations significantly among children (aged 6-11 years), adolescents (aged 12-19 years) and adults (aged 20-49 years). The body-weight-adjusted MEP concentrations in children were significantly higher than those in adults. On the other hand the DEP daily intakes in children were significantly lower than those in adults. We did not observe any differences in the DEP daily intake rates between males and females. Although the urinary MEP concentrations are correlated well with DEP daily intake estimates in the overall population, one should be cautious when directly using the urinary concentrations to compare the intake trends in the sub-populations (e.g. children vs. adults) as these trends are governed by additional physiological factors. The DEP daily intake calculated using the creatinine approach and that using the urine volume approach were similar to each other. The estimated geometric mean and 95th percentile of DEP daily intake in the general Canadian population are 2 and 20 μg/kg-bw/day, respectively. These daily intake estimates are significantly lower than the US Environmental Protection Agency's oral reference dose of 800 μg/kg-bw/day.