Determinants of exposure to endocrine disruptors following hurricane Harvey.

Hurricane Harvey was a category four storm that induced catastrophic flooding in the Houston metropolitan area. Following the hurricane there was increased concern regarding chemical exposures due to damage caused by flood waters and emergency excess emissions from industrial facilities. This study utilized personal passive samplers in the form of silicone wristbands in Houston, TX to both assess chemical exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) immediately after the hurricane and determine participant characteristics associated with higher concentrations of exposure. Participants from the Houston-3H cohort (n = 172) wore a wristband for seven days and completed a questionnaire to determine various flood-related and demographic variables. Bivariate and multivariate analysis indicated that living in an area with a high Area Deprivation Index (ADI) (indicative of low socioeconomic status), identifying as Black/African American or Latino, and living in the Houston neighborhoods of Baytown and East Houston were associated with increased exposure to EDCs. These results provide evidence of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic injustices in exposure to EDCs in the Houston Metropolitan Area. Since the multiple regression models conducted did not fully explain exposure (0.047 < R2 < 0.34), more research is needed on the direct sources of EDCs within this area to create effective exposure mitigation strategies.

Indoor versus Outdoor Air Quality during Wildfires.

The human behavioral modification recommendations during wildfire events are based on particulate matter and may be confounded by the potential risks of gas-phase pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Moreover, the majority of adults spend over 90 percent of their time indoors where there is an increased concern of indoor air quality during wildfire events. We address these timely concerns by evaluating paired indoor and outdoor PAH concentrations in residential locations and their relationship with satellite model-based categorization of wildfire smoke intensity. Low-density polyethylene passive air samplers were deployed at six urban sites for 1 week in Eugene, Oregon with matched indoor and outdoor samples and 24 h time resolution. Samples were then quantitatively analyzed for 63 PAH concentrations using gas-chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. A probabilistic principal components analysis was used to reduce all 63 PAHs into an aggregate measure. Linear regression of the first principal component against indoor versus outdoor shows that indoor gas-phase PAH concentrations are consistently equal to or greater than outdoor concentrations. Regression against a satellite-based model for wildfire smoke shows that outdoor, but not indoor gas-phase PAH concentrations are likely associated with wildfire events. These results point toward the need to include gas-phase pollutants such as PAHs in air pollution risk assessment.