Biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exposure and short-time health effects in wildland firefighters during real-life fire events

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171801
• Publication Date: 2024-03-19T02:22:00Z
• Authors: Ana Margarida Paiva; Bela Barros; Marta Oliveira; Sara Alves; Filipa Esteves; Adília Fernandes; Josiana Vaz; Klára Slezáková; João Paulo Teixeira; Solange Costa; Simone Morais
• Keywords: Tobacco smoke

Human biomonitoring data retrieved from real-life wildland firefighting in Europe and, also, worldwide are scarce. Thus, this study, 176 Portuguese firefighters were biomonitored pre- and post- unsimulated wildfire combating (average:12–13 h; maximum: 55 h) to evaluate the impact on levels of urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons hydroxylated metabolites (OHPAH; quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection) associated short-term health effects (symptoms, total differentiated white blood cells). Correlations between these variables self-reported questionnaires also investigated. Firefighters organized into four groups according their exposure emissions smoking habits: non-smoking non-exposed (NSNExp), exposed (NSExp), (SNExp), (SExp). The most abundant 1-hydroxynaphthalene 1-hydroxyacenaphthene (1OHNaph + 1OHAce) (98–99 %), followed 2-hydroxyfluorene (2OHFlu) (0.2–1.1 1-hydroxyphenanthrene (1OHPhen) (0.2–0.4 1-hydroxypyrene (1OHPy) (0.1–0.2 %); 3-hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene was not detected. significantly elevated median concentrations each individual OHPAH compounds all groups, but effect more pronounced (1.7–4.2 times; p ≤ 0.006) than (1.3–1.6 0.03). greatest discriminant 1OHNaph 1OHAce (increase 4.2 times), while for tobacco smoke it 2OHFlu 10 times). Post-exposure, cells count increased ranging 1.4 (smokers, = 0.025) 3.7-fold (non-smokers, < 0.001), which accompanied stronger significant correlations (0.480 r 0.882; 0.04) (and lymphocytes > monocytes neutrophils non-smokers), evidencing PAH released immune cells. This study identifies high biomarkers points out importance adopting schemes, that include multiple effect, implementing mitigations strategies.