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Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment

BACKGROUND: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the main toxic compounds in natural bitumen, a fossil material used by modern and ancient societies around the world. The adverse health effects of PAHs on modern humans are well established, but their health impacts on past populations are unc...

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Autores principales: Sholts, Sabrina B., Smith, Kevin, Wallin, Cecilia, Ahmed, Trifa M., Wärmländer, Sebastian K. T. S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481889/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28641573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-017-0261-1
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author Sholts, Sabrina B.
Smith, Kevin
Wallin, Cecilia
Ahmed, Trifa M.
Wärmländer, Sebastian K. T. S.
author_facet Sholts, Sabrina B.
Smith, Kevin
Wallin, Cecilia
Ahmed, Trifa M.
Wärmländer, Sebastian K. T. S.
author_sort Sholts, Sabrina B.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the main toxic compounds in natural bitumen, a fossil material used by modern and ancient societies around the world. The adverse health effects of PAHs on modern humans are well established, but their health impacts on past populations are unclear. It has previously been suggested that a prehistoric health decline among the native people living on the California Channel Islands may have been related to PAH exposure. Here, we assess the potential health risks of PAH exposure from the use and manufacture of bitumen-coated water bottles by ancient California Indian societies. METHODS: We replicated prehistoric bitumen-coated water bottles with traditional materials and techniques of California Indians, based on ethnographic and archaeological evidence. In order to estimate PAH exposure related to water bottle manufacture and use, we conducted controlled experiments to measure PAH contamination 1) in air during the manufacturing process and 2) in water and olive oil stored in a completed bottle for varying periods of time. Samples were analyzed with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for concentrations of the 16 PAHs identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as priority pollutants. RESULTS: Eight PAHs were detected in concentrations of 1–10 μg/m(3) in air during bottle production and 50–900 ng/L in water after 2 months of storage, ranging from two-ring (naphthalene and methylnaphthalene) to four-ring (fluoranthene) molecules. All 16 PAHs analyzed were detected in olive oil after 2 days (2 to 35 μg/kg), 2 weeks (3 to 66 μg/kg), and 2 months (5 to 140 μg/kg) of storage. CONCLUSIONS: For ancient California Indians, water stored in bitumen-coated water bottles was not a significant source of PAH exposure, but production of such bottles could have resulted in harmful airborne PAH exposure. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12940-017-0261-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-54818892017-06-23 Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment Sholts, Sabrina B. Smith, Kevin Wallin, Cecilia Ahmed, Trifa M. Wärmländer, Sebastian K. T. S. Environ Health Research BACKGROUND: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the main toxic compounds in natural bitumen, a fossil material used by modern and ancient societies around the world. The adverse health effects of PAHs on modern humans are well established, but their health impacts on past populations are unclear. It has previously been suggested that a prehistoric health decline among the native people living on the California Channel Islands may have been related to PAH exposure. Here, we assess the potential health risks of PAH exposure from the use and manufacture of bitumen-coated water bottles by ancient California Indian societies. METHODS: We replicated prehistoric bitumen-coated water bottles with traditional materials and techniques of California Indians, based on ethnographic and archaeological evidence. In order to estimate PAH exposure related to water bottle manufacture and use, we conducted controlled experiments to measure PAH contamination 1) in air during the manufacturing process and 2) in water and olive oil stored in a completed bottle for varying periods of time. Samples were analyzed with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for concentrations of the 16 PAHs identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as priority pollutants. RESULTS: Eight PAHs were detected in concentrations of 1–10 μg/m(3) in air during bottle production and 50–900 ng/L in water after 2 months of storage, ranging from two-ring (naphthalene and methylnaphthalene) to four-ring (fluoranthene) molecules. All 16 PAHs analyzed were detected in olive oil after 2 days (2 to 35 μg/kg), 2 weeks (3 to 66 μg/kg), and 2 months (5 to 140 μg/kg) of storage. CONCLUSIONS: For ancient California Indians, water stored in bitumen-coated water bottles was not a significant source of PAH exposure, but production of such bottles could have resulted in harmful airborne PAH exposure. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12940-017-0261-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2017-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC5481889/ /pubmed/28641573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-017-0261-1 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Sholts, Sabrina B.
Smith, Kevin
Wallin, Cecilia
Ahmed, Trifa M.
Wärmländer, Sebastian K. T. S.
Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment
title Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment
title_full Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment
title_fullStr Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment
title_full_unstemmed Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment
title_short Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment
title_sort ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (pah) exposure among california indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481889/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28641573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-017-0261-1
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