Details:

Alternative Title:
Environ Health Perspect
Publisher's site:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1104863
Personal Author:
Choi, Yoon-Hyeong ; Hu, Howard ; Mukherjee, Bhramar ; Miller, Josef ; Park, Sung Kyun
Choi, Yoon-Hyeong ; Hu, Howard ; Mukherjee, Bhramar ; Miller, Josef ; Park, Sung Kyun Less -
Description:
Although cadmium and lead are known risk factors for hearing loss in animal models, few epidemiologic studies have been conducted on their associations with hearing ability in the general population.|We investigated the associations between blood cadmium and lead exposure and hearing loss in the U.S. general population while controlling for noise and other major risk factors contributing to hearing loss.|We analyzed data from 3,698 U.S. adults 20-69 years of age who had been randomly assigned to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 Audiometry Examination Component. Pure-tone averages (PTA) of hearing thresholds at frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz were computed, and hearing loss was defined as a PTA > 25 dB in either ear.|The weighted geometric means of blood cadmium and lead were 0.40 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.39. 0.42] µg/L and 1.54 (95% CI: 1.49, 1.60) µg/dL, respectively. After adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical risk factors and exposure to occupational and nonoccupational noise, the highest (vs. lowest) quintiles of cadmium and lead were associated with 13.8% (95% CI: 4.6%, 23.8%) and 18.6% (95% CI: 7.4%, 31.1%) increases in PTA, respectively (p-trends < 0.05).|Our results suggest that low-level exposure to cadmium and lead found in the general U.S. population may be important risk factors for hearing loss. The findings support efforts to reduce environmental cadmium and lead exposures.
Subject:
[+]
Adult
Aged
Audiometry, Pure-Tone
Cadmium
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Environmental Exposure
Environmental Pollutants
Female
Hearing Loss
Humans
Lead
Linear Models
Male
Middle Aged
Nutrition Surveys
Research
Risk Factors
Spectrophotometry, Atomic
Young Adult

Source:
Environ Health Perspect. 2012; 120(11):1544-1550.
Pubmed ID:
22851306
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC3556613
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
K01 ES016587/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; K01-ES016587/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; P30 ES017885/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; T42-OH008455/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
K01 ES016587/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; K01-ES016587/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; P30 ES017885/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; T42-OH008455/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States Less -
Place as Subject:
United States
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:51f866a0f95a8607da6bad75c9a52803dff6add174fe8bd91e12ac00909c0ca3
File Type:

Supporting Files

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  	ehp.1104863.g001.jpg	jpeg
  	ehp.1104863.nxml	txt
  	ehp.1104863.s001.pdf	pdf
  	license.txt	txt

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