The Great Lakes Center for Children's Environmental Health

Measuring PAH Exposure in Ukrainian Children

In 1998, a team of researchers from UIC GLC went to Mariupol Ukraine to undertake an environmental health study of a part of an existing cohort of children (Family and Children of Ukraine - see Case Study). The study was planned and performed with needed assistance and coordination with multiple Ukrainian research and clinical partners. The study measured a urinary marker of PAH exposure in 48 three-year-old children in Mariupol, Ukraine who lived near a steel mill and coking facility and compared them to 1-OHP concentrations measured in 42 three-year-old children living in the capital city of Kyiv, Ukraine. Children living in Mariupol had significantly higher urinary 1-OHP and creatinine adjusted urinary 1-OHP than children living in Kyiv (adjusted: 0.69 mmol/mol creatinine versus 0.34 mmol/mol creatinine; p < 0.001; unadjusted: 0.42 ng/mL versus 0.30 ng/ml; p = 0.002). Our sample of children in Mariupol has the highest reported mean urinary 1-OHP concentrations in children studied to date. (article available at Environmental Health Perspectives In-Press)