Join us to hear Dr. Kim Anderson discuss the use of silicone wristbands to assess personal chemical exposures. Dr. Anderson, Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University, has long been a pioneer in the use of silicone wristbands to assess multiple chemical exposures to individuals from a wide range of communities and geographical areas. Her recent research explored the differences and trends in personal chemical exposure from 14 communities in Africa, North America and South America. In this study, wristband extracts were analyzed for 1,530 unique chemicals, with chemical detections ranging from 4 to 43 per wristband. The study detected 13 potential endocrine disrupting chemicals in over 50% of all wristbands and found 36 chemicals in common between chemicals detected in the three geographical wristband groups.
Among other findings, U.S. children had the highest percentage of flame retardant detections compared with all other participants. Consumer product-related chemicals and phthalates were a high percentage of chemical detections across all study locations. Although chemical exposures varied among individuals, many individuals were exposed to similar chemical mixtures.
Other studies designed and implemented by Dr. Anderson and her staff include assessing chemicals exposures to firefighters during deployment to structural fires, and to individuals living in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
All these studies open doors to a deeper understanding of trends in personal pollution, prioritize the need to develop protocols to assess those mixtures of chemicals as identified as occurring more frequently within those geographical areas and occupations studied, and demonstrates the effectiveness, convenience and reliability of silicone bracelet analyses as compared to other methods of personal chemical exposure assessments.
Please join this webinar to learn more about those chemicals tested within the three geographical areas, and the silicone wristband capacity to capture exposures from multiple chemical classes, critical to the understanding of the links between real-world chemical exposures and health effects.
Kim Anderson, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University, and an OSU Alumni Distinguished Professor. She directs the Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program at OSU. She is the receipent of the OSU 2017 Innovator of the Year award. Dr. Anderson has more than 100 peer reviewed articles and holds 5 patents. She was a member the Gulf Research Program Advisory Council for the National Academies of Science and has served on the board of directors for both North America and World Council for the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Dr. Anderson is a Project and Core leader in the NIEHS Superfund Research Program titled “PAHs: New Technologies and Emerging Health Risks”. Dr. Anderson was recruited by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in collaboration with the Global Environmental Fund to conduct environmental assessment for use in setting of protective standards for human and environmental health in western Africa. She has over 30 years of experience building analytical capacity in the US and Africa, including developing analytical methods for organic contaminants in environmental and biology matrices. Dr. Anderson has been developing personal silicone wristband sampler technology since 2008 for measuring an individual chemical exposure as well as larger monitoring projects. Dr. Anderson is interested in developing personal chemical exposure surveys (systematic and scientific examination of individual chemical exposures and hazards) to better understand connections between chemical exposures, interventions, and health outcomes.
This webinar is one in a monthly series sponsored by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s EDC Strategies Partnership. The CHE EDC Strategies Partnership is chaired by Carol Kwiatkowski and Katie Pelch (TEDX), Sharyle Patton (Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center), Jerry Heindel (Commonweal's HEEDS), and Genon Jensen (HEAL) and coordinated by Hannah Donart (Collaborative on Health and the Environment, a Commonweal program). To see a full list of past calls and webinars related to EDCs and listen to or view recordings, please visit our partnership page.
This webinar was moderated by Sharyle Patton, Director of the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center. It lasted for 30 minutes and was recorded for our call and webinar archive.