- Full (HTML) - Full (PDF) - Supplemental Material - Related EHP Articles - Purchase This Issue

Elizabeth Hedgeman,¹ Qixuan Chen,² Biling Hong,¹ Chiung-Wen Chang,¹ Kristen Olson,³ Kathleen LaDronka,⁴ Barbara Ward,⁴ Peter Adriaens,⁵ Avery Demond,⁵ Brenda W. Gillespie,² James Lepkowski,⁴ Alfred Franzblau,¹ and David H. Garabrant¹

¹Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Risk Science Center, and ²Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; ³Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; ⁴Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; ⁵Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan College of Engineering, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Abstract
Background: The University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study was undertaken to address concerns that the discharge of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) from the Dow Chemical Company in the Midland, Michigan, area had resulted in contamination of soils in the Tittabawassee River floodplain and the city of Midland, leading to an increase in residents’ body burdens of these compounds.

Objective: In this article we present descriptive statistics from the resident survey and sampling of human serum, household dust, and soil and compare them with other published values.

Methods: From a multistage random sample of populations in four areas of Midland and Saginaw counties and from a distant referent population, we interviewed 946 adults, who also donated blood for analysis of PCDDs, PCDFs, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) . Samples of household dust and house perimeter soil were collected from consenting subjects who owned their property.

Results: All five study populations were comparable in age, race, sex, and length of residence in their current home. Regional differences existed in employment history, personal contact with contaminated soils, and consumption of fish and game from contaminated areas. Median soil concentrations were significantly increased around homes in the Tittabawassee River floodplain (11.4 ppt) and within the city of Midland (58.2 ppt) compared with the referent population (3.6 ppt) . Median serum toxic equivalencies were significantly increased in people who lived in the floodplain (23.2 ppt) compared with the referent population (18.5 ppt) .

Conclusions: Differences in serum dioxin concentrations among the populations were small but statistically significant. Regression modeling is needed to identify whether the serum concentrations of PCDDs, PCDFs, and PCBs are associated with contaminated soils, household dust, and other factors.

Key words: biomonitoring, dioxins, dust, environmental exposure, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, serum, soil, survey. Environ Health Perspect 117:811–817 (2009) . doi:10.1289/ehp.11780 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 22 December 2008]

Address correspondence to E. Hedgeman, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1420 Washington Heights, Room 6529, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029 USA. Telephone: (734) 936-0726. Fax: (734) 763-7170. E-mail: hedgeman@umich.edu

Supplemental Material is available online at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/11780/suppl.pdf

We thank D. Patterson and S. Vantine for their assistance, and L. Birnbaum, R. Hites, P. Boffetta, and M.H. Sweeney for their guidance as members of our scientific advisory board.

Financial support came from Dow Chemical Company through an unrestricted grant to the University of Michigan.

A.F. and D.H.G. have at times been retained as consultants and served as expert witnesses for Dow Chemical Company. The remaining authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 9 June 2008 ; accepted 22 December 2008.