Comparative Exposure Assessment Using Silicone Passive Samplers Indicates That Domestic Dogs Are Sentinels To Support Human Health Research

Abstract

Silicone wristbands are promising passive samplers to support epidemiological studies in characterizing exposure to organic contaminants; however, investigating associated health risks remains challenging because of the latency period for many chronic diseases that take years to manifest. Dogs provide valuable insights as sentinels for exposure-related human disease because they share similar exposures in the home, have shorter life spans, share many clinical/biological features, and have closely related genomes. Here, we evaluated exposures among pet dogs and their owners using silicone dog tags and wristbands to determine if contaminant levels were correlated with validated exposure biomarkers. Significant correlations between measures on dog tags and wristbands were observed (r_s = 0.38-0.90; p < 0.05). Correlations with their respective urinary biomarkers were stronger in dog tags compared to that in human wristbands (r_s = 0.50-0.71; p < 0.01) for several organophosphate esters. This supports the value of using silicone bands with dogs to investigate health impacts on humans from shared exposures.

Figure 1.

Silicone monitoring devices. (a) Wristband for human (b) Dog tag affixed to dog collar.

Figure 2.

Example scatterplots for each chemical class for paired human wristband and dog tag samples. Data are log transformed, spearman correlations (r_s) and p-values for each association are provided. (a) Triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) (b) Polybrominated diphenyl ether congener 47 (BDE-47) (c) 2-ethylhexyl-2,3,4,5 tetrabromobenzoate (EH-TBB) (d) Polychlorinated biphenyl congener 28 (PCB28) (e) Chlorpyrifos, (f) Diethyl phthalate (DEP).

Figure 3.

Example scatterplots for wristband/dog tag associated with urinary metabolites. Correlation of triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) measured on the wristbands and dog tags and its urinary metabolite diphenyl phosphate (DPHP) (a) humans (b) dogs. Urinary metabolite concentrations are specific gravity corrected values. Data are log transformed, spearman correlations (r_s) and p-values for each association are provided.