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Published on: June 5, 2020
Development and verification of a toxicokinetic model of polychlorinated biphenyl elimination in persons working in a
Horst Christoph Broding1, Thomas Schettgen, Thomas Göen
1Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational-, Social and Environmental Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schillerstrasse 25/29, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. broding@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de
Background:
Polychlorinated biphenyls are toxic and slowly degrading substances that have been in widespread industrial use in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite a worldwide reduction, environmental exposure remains an issue; the assessment of an individual's level of exposure at a given time in retrospect requires valid toxicokinetic modeling of the different PCB congeners.
Objectives:
To develop and verify a toxicokinetic model of the in vivo-degradation of PCB 28 and 52 in adult humans.
Methods:
The plasma concentrations of PCB congeners were measured in 583 persons working in a contaminated building for an average of 14.7+/-9.6 years. The values were adapted to a simple pharmacokinetic model (yt = y0 x (1 - e(-kt))); the steady state concentration y0 was estimated based on the median values of persons working exposed more than 10 years.
Results:
The steady state concentration of PCB 28 was 0.10 microg/l, that of PCB 52 0.02 microg/l. The half-life of the congeners was estimated based on a logarithmic regression analysis according to the model mentioned above; it was 2.18 (95% CI: 1.91-2.54) years for PCB 28 and 3.95 (95% CI: 3.55-4.45) years for PCB 52, respectively. Stepwise elimination of persons with very long employment duration did not reduce the estimated half-life.
Conclusions:
The estimated half-life is higher than previously published data especially for PCB 52. Possible reasons and implications of this finding are discussed.
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