Environmental risk score as a new tool to examine multi-pollutants in epidemiologic research: an example from the NHANES study using serum lipid levels.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

A growing body of evidence suggests that environmental pollutants, such as heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and plasticizers play an important role in the development of chronic diseases. Most epidemiologic studies have examined environmental pollutants individually, but in real life, we are exposed to multi-pollutants and pollution mixtures, not single pollutants. Although multi-pollutant approaches have been recognized recently, challenges exist such as how to estimate the risk of adverse health responses from multi-pollutants. We propose an "Environmental Risk Score (ERS)" as a new simple tool to examine the risk of exposure to multi-pollutants in epidemiologic research.

Methods and results

We examined 134 environmental pollutants in relation to serum

SUBMITTER: Park SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4047033 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature