NCEH Biomonitoring Program and Assessing Exposure to Acrylamide Thomas Sinks, Ph.D. Associate Director for Science National Center for Environmental Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Biomonitoring measures environmental chemicals in human tissues like blood or urine. It can answer several questions… Who is exposed? How exposed are they? Does exposure cause disease? Does exposure vary across populations? Do interventions work? Lead (Pb) Cigarette smoke Methyl parathion

Changes in blood lead levels in U.S. children; NHANES data G. mean blood lead levels (ug/dL) Year

National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals To provide the public, federal partners, and policy makers with U.S. population exposure levels of important environmental chemicals. Congressionally mandated Partnership between NCEH lab and NCHS/NHANES

National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals 2001 Report: 27 chemicals 2002 Report: will include more than 75 chemicals acrylamide not included

CDC will add acrylamide to the report CDC is developing an assay for acrylamide or glycidamide adduct of the N-terminal  - chain of hemoglobin. CDC is developing peptide- based standards and calibrators. Assay reflects cumulative exposure over the last 3 months, precise and accurate, independent of fasting status and diurnal variation

Methodology (Method in Development) Sample Hemoglobin derived peptides HPLC-MS/MS Of N-terminal peptide Internal Standard Isolation of red blood cells Enzymatic digest Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Quantitation AA

Critical Next Steps –Set aside whole blood for analysis –Convene a working group to assure quality of the assay. –Collaborate on health studies to relate population-based exposure data and health risks. –Identify important exposure sources Acrylamide Ala Ser Lys Glu Pro Thr Leu His Val Glu-C