2023-11-17 14:58:50
November 17, 2023
The rapid elimination by the body of certain chemical substances can sometimes make it difficult to assess their dangerousness. But according to ANSES, hair appears to be a good element of analysis, retaining traces of products for longer than blood or urine.
Bisphenols, phthalates, pesticides… So many substances potentially dangerous to health. Problem, some of them we are exposed to via our environment or our food are eliminated in a few hours by our body. This can distort the results of studies relating to the dangerousness of these products.
« We were confronted with this problem during an expertise on bisphenol A (BPA) », explains Claire Beausoleil, toxicologist within the Risk Assessment Directorate. Indeed, some studies have failed to link BPA levels in urine with possible health effects.
Analyze hair and hair
So one of two things: either the people studied had not been exposed to doses high enough to be detected in the urine. Either these measurements did not reflect the exposure well. It seems that this second option is to be preferred.
The National Health Security Agency (ANSES), the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and the National Institute of the Industrial Environment and Risks (Ineris) therefore set out in search of a more relevant analysis method for measure exposure to chemicals. So they compared – on an animal model – the presence of chemicals in urine, blood and hair analyses.
As a result, while the substance may have been eliminated from the blood at the time of sampling, the hair retained traces of the pollutant for longer once it had attached to the keratin.
For researchers, “ hair analysis reflects exposure over a longer period and is not subject to the short-term variations usually measured in blood or urine. » This method might therefore make it possible to trace “internal” exposure to a chemical substance, which is essential to identify its long-term toxicity.
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#Hair #witnesses #exposure #chemicals #news
