Comparison of trihalomethanes in tap water and blood: a case study in the United States.

Publisher: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0330411 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1552-9924 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00916765 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Environ Health Perspect Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Research Triangle Park, N. C. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Trihalomethanes/*analysis ; Water Pollutants, Chemical/*analysis ; Water Supply/*analysis; Environmental Exposure ; Female ; Humans ; Limit of Detection ; Postpartum Period ; Trihalomethanes/blood ; United States ; Water Pollutants, Chemical/blood

Background: Epidemiological studies have used various measures to characterize trihalomethane (THM) exposures, but the relationship of these indicators to exposure biomarkers remains unclear.
Objectives: We examined temporal and spatial variability in baseline blood THM concentrations and assessed the relationship between these concentrations and several exposure indicators (tap water concentration, water-use activities, multiroute exposure metrics).
Methods: We measured water-use activity and THM concentrations in blood and residential tap water from 150 postpartum women from three U.S. locations.
Results: Blood ΣTHM [sum of chloroform (TCM), bromodichloromethane (BDCM), dibromo-chloromethane (DBCM), and bromoform (TBM)] concentrations varied by site and season. As expected based on variable tap water concentrations and toxicokinetic properties, the proportion of brominated species (BDCM, DBCM, and TBM) in blood varied by site (site 1, 24%; site 2, 29%; site 3, 57%) but varied less markedly than in tap water (site 1, 35%; site 2, 75%; site 3, 68%). The blood-water ΣTHM Spearman rank correlation coefficient was 0.36, with correlations higher for individual brominated species (BDCM, 0.62; DBCM, 0.53; TBM, 0.54) than for TCM (0.37). Noningestion water activities contributed more to the total exposure metric than did ingestion, but tap water THM concentrations were more predictive of blood THM levels than were metrics that incorporated water use.
Conclusions: Spatial and temporal variability in THM concentrations was greater in water than in blood. We found consistent blood-water correlations across season and site for BDCM and DBCM, and multivariate regression results suggest that water THM concentrations may be an adequate surro-gate for baseline blood levels.

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P30 ES010126 United States ES NIEHS NIH HHS; P30E510126 United States PHS HHS

0 (Trihalomethanes)
0 (Water Pollutants, Chemical)

Date Created: 20120128 Date Completed: 20120822 Latest Revision: 20211021

20240829

PMC3346785

10.1289/ehp.1104347

22281753