Skip to main page content
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.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2025 Apr:265:114540.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2025.114540. Epub 2025 Feb 19.

Serum concentrations of persistent endocrine-disrupting chemicals in U.S. military personnel: A comparison by race/ethnicity and sex

Karl C Alcover  1 , Jordan McAdam  2 , Hristina Denic-Roberts  3 , Celia Byrne  4 , Andreas Sjodin  5 , Mark Davis  5 , Richard Jones  5 , Yawei Zhang  6 , Jennifer A Rusiecki  7
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Serum concentrations of persistent endocrine-disrupting chemicals in U.S. military personnel: A comparison by race/ethnicity and sex

Karl C Alcover et al. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives/background: We evaluated patterns of serum concentrations of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), namely polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), in a U.S. military sample by race/ethnicity (R/E) and sex.

Methods: Twenty-three EDCs were measured in stored serum samples obtained between 1995 and 2010 for 708 service members from the Department of Defense Serum Repository. For each EDC, geometric means (GM) were estimated using log-transformed concentrations in a linear regression model, for eight combined R/E/sex groups: non-Hispanic White (NHW), non-Hispanic Black (NHB), non-Hispanic Asian (NHA), and Hispanic men and women, adjusted for age and service branch and stratified by age tertile ("younger age": 17-23, "middle age": 24-30, and "older age": 31-52 years). Comparisons were made between our military sample and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2004 data for NHW and NHB groups.

Results: Within our military sample, the highest PCB concentrations were among older age NHB men and women and highest OCP concentrations among older age NHB women and NHA men. PBDE concentrations were generally highest in middle age Hispanic women and NHA men, though based on small sample size. Generally, NHB men and women had higher concentrations of EDCs in both the military and NHANES.

Conclusions: We found patterns of elevated EDC concentrations among NHB, NHA, and Hispanic groups in the military sample and for NHB men and women in NHANES. There were no consistent patterns of higher or lower EDCs comparing the military to NHANES. Future studies of EDCs and health outcomes should stratify by R/E/sex to account for potential disparities in EDC concentrations.

Keywords: Disparities; Endocrine disrupting chemicals; Organochlorine pesticides; Polybrominated diphenyl ethers; Polychlorinated biphenyls.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors report no competing interests.

References

    1. Endocrine Society Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs). 2022. [cited 2024 18 December]; Available from: https://www.endocrine.org/patient-engagement/endocrine-library/edcs.
    1. Zlatnik MG, Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and reproductive health. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 2016. 61(4): p. 442–455. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Papalou O, et al., Endocrine disrupting chemicals: An occult mediator of metabolic disease. Frontiers in Endocrinology (Lausanne), 2019. 10: p. 112. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boas M, Feldt-Rasmussen U, and Main KM, Thyroid effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 2012. 355(2): p. 240–8. - PubMed
    1. Hakkarainen K, et al., Persistent organic pollutants associate with liver disease in a Finnish general population sample. Liver International, 2023. 43(10): p. 2177–2185. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources