Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program

Silicone wristbands can assess multipollutant exposures in a non-invasive and minimally burdensome manner, which may be suitable for use among pregnant women. We investigated silicone wristbands as passive environmental samplers in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study, a prospective pregnancy cohort. We used wristbands to assess exposure to a broad range of organic chemicals, identified multipollutant exposure profiles using self-organizing maps (SOMs), and assessed temporal consistency and determinants of exposures during pregnancy. Participants ( = 255) wore wristbands for 1 week at 12 gestational weeks. Of 1,530 chemicals assayed, 199 were detected in at least one wristband and 16 were detected in >60% of wristbands. A median of 23 (range: 12,37) chemicals were detected in each wristband, and chemicals in commerce and personal care products were most frequently detected. A subset of participants (=20) wore a second wristband at 24 gestational weeks, and concentrations of frequently detected chemicals were moderately correlated between time points (median intraclass correlation: 0.22; range: 0.00,0.69). Women with higher educational attainment had fewer chemicals detected in their wristbands and the total number of chemicals detected varied seasonally. Triphenyl phosphate concentrations were positively associated with nail polish use, and benzophenone concentrations were highest in summer. No clear associations were observed with other relations, including certain behaviors, season, and socioeconomic factors. SOM analyses revealed 12 profiles, ranging from 2 to 149 participants, captured multipollutant exposure profiles observed in this cohort. The most common profile ( = 149) indicated that 58% of participants experienced relatively low exposures to frequently detected chemicals. Less common ( ≥ 10) and rare ( < 10) profiles were characterized by low to moderate exposures to most chemicals and very high and/or very low exposure to a subset of chemicals. Certain covariates varied across SOM profile membership; for example, relative to women in the most common profile who had low exposures to most chemicals, women in the profile with elevated exposure to galaxolide and benzyl benzoate were younger, more likely to be single, and more likely to report nail polish use. Our study illustrates the utility of silicone wristbands for measurement of multipollutant exposures in sensitive populations, including pregnant women.