Biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Brazilian pregnant women: Urinary levels and health risk assessment

Over the years, humans have been continuously exposed to several compounds directly generated by industrial processes and/or present in consumed products. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are legacy pollutants ubiquitous in the environment and represent the main chemical pollutants in urban areas. Worldwide, studies that aim to understand the impacts of exposure to these chemicals have gained increasing prominence due to their potential toxicity profile, mainly concerning genotoxicity and carcinogenicity. Human biomonitoring (HB) is an analytical approach to monitoring population exposure to chemicals; however, these studies are still limited in Brazil. Thus, this work aimed to evaluate the exposure of Brazilian pregnant women to PAHs through HB studies. Besides, the risk characterization of this exposure was performed. For this purpose, urine samples from 358 Brazilian pregnant women were used to evaluate 11 hydroxylated metabolites of PAHs employing gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The 1OH-naphthol and 2OH-naphthol were detected in 100% of the samples and showed high levels, corresponding to 16.99 and 3.62 & mu;g/g of creatinine, respectively. 2OH-fluorene (8.12 & mu;g/g of creatinine) and 9OH-fluorene (1.26 & mu;g/g of creatinine) were detected in 91% and 66% of the samples, respectively. Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) metabolites were detected in more than 50% of the samples (0.58-1.26 & mu;g/g of creatinine). A hazard index of 1.4 and a carcinogenic risk above 10-4 were found for BaP metabolites in the risk characterization. Therefore, our findings may indicate that exposure to PAHs poses a potential risk to pregnant women's health and a high probability of carcinogenic risk due to their exposure to BaP. Finally, this work shows the need for more in-depth studies to determine the sources of exposure and the implementation of health protection measures regarding the exposure of the Brazilian population to PAHs.