Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Comparison of trihalomethanes in tap water and blood: a case study in the United States.

Authors: Rivera-Núñez, Zorimar; Wright, J Michael; Blount, Benjamin C; Silva, Lalith K; Jones, Elizabeth; Chan, Ronna L; Pegram, Rex A; Singer, Philip C; Savitz, David A

Published In Environ Health Perspect, (2012 May)

Abstract: Epidemiological studies have used various measures to characterize trihalomethane (THM) exposures, but the relationship of these indicators to exposure biomarkers remains unclear.We examined temporal and spatial variability in baseline blood THM concentrations and assessed the relationship between these concentrations and several exposure indicators (tap water concentration, water-use activities, multiroute exposure metrics).We measured water-use activity and THM concentrations in blood and residential tap water from 150 postpartum women from three U.S. locations.Blood ΣTHM [sum of chloroform (TCM), bromodichloromethane (BDCM), dibromo-chloromethane (DBCM), and bromoform (TBM)] concentrations varied by site and season. As expected based on variable tap water concentrations and toxicokinetic properties, the proportion of brominated species (BDCM, DBCM, and TBM) in blood varied by site (site 1, 24%; site 2, 29%; site 3, 57%) but varied less markedly than in tap water (site 1, 35%; site 2, 75%; site 3, 68%). The blood-water ΣTHM Spearman rank correlation coefficient was 0.36, with correlations higher for individual brominated species (BDCM, 0.62; DBCM, 0.53; TBM, 0.54) than for TCM (0.37). Noningestion water activities contributed more to the total exposure metric than did ingestion, but tap water THM concentrations were more predictive of blood THM levels than were metrics that incorporated water use.Spatial and temporal variability in THM concentrations was greater in water than in blood. We found consistent blood-water correlations across season and site for BDCM and DBCM, and multivariate regression results suggest that water THM concentrations may be an adequate surro-gate for baseline blood levels.

PubMed ID: 22281753 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication

Back
to Top