Using mass spectrometry techniques, researchers in Luxembourg and France detected 69 biomarkers of pollutants and pesticides — 12 of which are banned — in hair samples from over 200 French children.
This study, published in Environment International, is the first to target over 150 biomarkers in a single hair sample, which “represents the most comprehensive assessment of chemical exposome in humans,” the authors say.
All children in the study were 3.5 years old and recruited from the Étude Longitudinale Française depuis l’Enfance (ELFE), French Longitudinal Study since Childhood, cohort in the country of France, a major pesticide consumer in Europe.
The ELFE survey is a joint project between the French Institute for Demographic Studies and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, which provides the first comprehensive national scientific investigation of children in France by following them from birth to adulthood.
Through analysis of hair samples from children in the ELFE cohort, this study evaluates pesticide exposure and compares it with prenatal exposure data from their mothers while also, according to the scientists, “investigat[ing] the roles of children’s biological sex and geographical differences as possible determinants of exposure.”
Exposure to pesticides during early childhood poses significant health risks. In assessing 32 chemical families through liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in 222 hair samples, exposure markers can be identified in children from the ELFE cohort.
Biomarkers, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are “measurable substances or characteristics in the human body that can be used to monitor the presence of a chemical in the body, biological responses or adverse health effects.”
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