IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i3p712-d312027.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Association between Uranium Exposure and Thyroid Health: A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Analysis and Ecological Study

Author

Listed:
  • Maaike van Gerwen

    (Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
    Institute for Translational Epidemiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Naomi Alpert

    (Institute for Translational Epidemiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
    Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Wil Lieberman-Cribbin

    (Institute for Translational Epidemiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
    Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Peter Cooke

    (Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Kimia Ziadkhanpour

    (Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Bian Liu

    (Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Eric Genden

    (Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

Abstract

Besides specific, incidental radiation exposure, which has been associated with increased thyroid cancer risk, the effects of exposure to background radiation from uranium, a naturally occurring, radioactive, and ubiquitous element, on the thyroid gland has not been widely studied. We therefore investigated the association between uranium exposure and thyroid health in the US. Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we assessed the association between urinary uranium levels and thyroid-related antibodies, including thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) and anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO), in the general population. Secondly, we performed an ecological study of age-adjusted thyroid cancer incidence rates per state and sources of uranium exposure. We included 3125 eligible participants from the NHANES and found a significant association between increased TgAb and increased urinary uranium levels when analyzed as quartiles ( p = 0.0105), while no association was found with anti-TPO. In addition, although no significant correlation was found in the ecological study, certain states had high age-adjusted thyroid cancer incidence rates and a high number of uranium activity locations and high uranium concentrations in water. The present study suggests that uranium exposure may affect thyroid health, which warrants increased sampling of soil and water in high-risk states.

Suggested Citation

  • Maaike van Gerwen & Naomi Alpert & Wil Lieberman-Cribbin & Peter Cooke & Kimia Ziadkhanpour & Bian Liu & Eric Genden, 2020. "Association between Uranium Exposure and Thyroid Health: A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Analysis and Ecological Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-12, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:712-:d:312027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/712/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/712/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andre Banning & Mira Benfer, 2017. "Drinking Water Uranium and Potential Health Effects in the German Federal State of Bavaria," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-10, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zahia Tigrine & Ouassila Benhabiles & Leila Merabti & Nadia Chekir & Mounir Mellal & Salaheddine Aoudj & Nora Amele Abdeslam & Djilali Tassalit & Seif El Islam Lebouachera & Nadjib Drouiche, 2024. "Sustainable Activated Carbon from Agricultural Waste: A Study on Adsorption Efficiency for Humic Acid and Methyl Orange Dyes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-19, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:712-:d:312027. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.