ABSTRACT
As kinds of endocrine disruptors, organophosphate esters (OPEs) pollution in the environment had received increasing attention recently. Food and water intake were two important exposure pathways for OPEs. However, the studies about the potential association between OPEs and gastrointestinal cancer were limited. This study investigated the possible association between OPEs and gastrointestinal cancer. All cancer patients were diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer from a Grade 3 A hospital in Wuhan, China, while the control group was non-cancer healthy persons. The results showed that 6 OPEs were found in the control samples, while 8 in the samples from patients with gastrointestinal cancer. The detection frequencies of OPEs in gastrointestinal cancer patients were significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01), except for triethyl phosphate (TEP) and tris (methylphenyl) phosphate (TMPP) in the gastric cancer group. The concentrations of OPEs in the control group were significantly lower than those in the gastric cancer group and colorectal cancer group (p < 0.01). In the control group and gastrointestinal cancer group, TEP was the dominant pollutant. Correlation analysis found that concentrations of TEP, tris(2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP), triphenyl phosphate (TPHP), TMPP, tris(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEHP), and 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP) were associated with gastric cancer (p < 0.01), and concentrations of TEP, TCIPP, TPHP, TMPP and TEHP were associated with colorectal cancer (p < 0.01). A cluster analysis divided the 34 patients with gastric cancer and 40 patients with colorectal cancer in four groups. The results showed that the elderly male patients with gastric cancer were more sensitive to the exposure of EHDPP, while the TEP exposure was more sensitive to the relatively young gastrointestinal cancer patients. These findings indicated that OPEs might play a role in developing gastrointestinal cancer.
Subject(s)
Endocrine Disruptors/toxicity , Environmental Pollutants/toxicity , Gastrointestinal Neoplasms/epidemiology , Organophosphates/toxicity , Adult , Aged , China/epidemiology , Correlation of Data , Endocrine Disruptors/blood , Environmental Exposure , Environmental Pollutants/blood , Esters , Female , Gastrointestinal Neoplasms/blood , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Organophosphates/blood , Risk AssessmentABSTRACT
BiVO4 as a promising semiconductor absorber is widely investigated as photoanode in photoelectrochemical water splitting. Herein, the rational design of 3D hierarchical ternary SnO2/TiO2/BiVO4 arrays is reported as photoanode for photoelectrochemical application, in which the SnO2 hierarchically hollow microspheres core/nanosheets shell arrays act as conductive skeletons, while the sandwiched TiO2 and surface BiVO4 are working as hole blocking layer and light absorber, respectively. Arising to the hierarchically ordered structure and synergistic effect between each component in the composite, the ternary SnO2/TiO2/BiVO4 photoanode enables high light harvesting efficiency as well as enhanced charge transport and separation efficiency, yielding a maximum photocurrent density of ≈5.03 mA cm-2 for sulfite oxidation and ≈3.1 mA cm-2 for water oxidation, respectively, measured at 1.23 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode under simulated air mass (AM) 1.5 solar light illumination. The results reveal that electrode design and interface engineering play important roles on the overall PEC performance.
