Abstract
Background: Exposure to melamine and its analogue,
cyanuric acid, occurs through a variety of commercial products like
housewares, paints, plastic, papers, fabric, inks and many others.
The intentional adulteration of pet food and infant formula with
melamine has been reported to cause kidney damage, renal failure
and death in certain cases. Co-exposures to melamine and cyanuric
acid in livestock, pets and laboratory animals have shown higher
toxicity compared with melamine and cyanuric acid alone. Melamine
exposure remains to be a public health concern because of its
tremendous use in daily life and the limited knowledge and
understanding of its toxicity in humans. Our study objectives were
to describe the population distribution of urinary melamine and
cyanuric acid in the general US population, to evaluate their
relation and to determine if doses calculated from the urinary
values were within the FDA guidelines for exposure.
Methods: Data used for this study were collected as a
part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
(NHANES) for the years 2003-2004. Melamine and cyanuric acid
were measured in a random 492-person subset of the entire survey
maintaining representativeness of the sample to the US population.
Three variables (age, sex, and racial/ethnicity) were evaluated for
descriptive analysis for both melamine and cyanuric acid outcome
and adjusted for urinary creatinine levels. Sex, age and
race/ethnicity groups were compared to each other within the group
by using the PROC GLM procedure. Statistical significance was
established at α= 0.05 significance level.
Results: No significant differences in melamine
concentrations were observed among age, sex and racial/ethnic
groups. However, we did see significantly higher cyanuric acid
levels among males as compared to females (p <0.0001).
Adjusting for sex, age, race/ethnicity, and urinary
creatinine, we found significantly lower melamine concentrations in
non-Hispanic blacks as compared to non-Hispanic whites (p=0.0031)
and in those younger than 20 years when compared to older
participants (p=0.0415). Creatinine adjusted data also showed
significantly lower cyanuric acid concentrations in non-Hispanic
blacks as compared to non-Hispanic white (p=0.0001). Melamine and
cyanuric acid doses were reconstructed by estimating the absorbed
doses in our population sample. No significant differences in the
doses estimated for sex, age and various race/ethnicity groups were
observed.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest
that male have higher exposure of melamine and
cyanuric acid as compared to female population. Our sample
population's exposure to melamine and cyanuric acid did not fall
within a range of regulatory concern.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------1
Materials and
Methods-----------------------------------------------------------7
Results--------------------------------------------------------------------------9
Discussion-----------------------------------------------------------------------21
References----------------------------------------------------------------------23
Table
1-------------------------------------------------------------------------10
Table
2-------------------------------------------------------------------------11
Table
3-------------------------------------------------------------------------12
Table
4-------------------------------------------------------------------------13
Table
5-------------------------------------------------------------------------17
Table
6-------------------------------------------------------------------------18
Table
7-------------------------------------------------------------------------19
Table
8-------------------------------------------------------------------------20
Figure
1------------------------------------------------------------------------14
Figure
2------------------------------------------------------------------------14
Figure
3------------------------------------------------------------------------15
Figure
4------------------------------------------------------------------------15
About this Master's Thesis
Rights statement
- Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.
School |
|
Department |
|
Degree |
|
Submission |
|
Language |
|
Research Field |
|
Keyword |
|
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor |
|
Partnering Agencies |
|