Researchers at Oregon State University used silicone wristbands to measure Houston residents’ increased exposure to hazardous chemicals in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
The wristbands recorded exposures to 162 different chemicals, including pesticides, flame retardants, industrial compounds, phthalates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Researchers followed up with study participants a year after Harvey to approximate a baseline so they could parse out which exposures were caused by the storm. On average, 75% of the chemicals detected across both timepoints were found in higher concentrations immediately after the hurricane, but people’s baseline exposure was already high.
“Houston is one of our most industrialized cities,” said co-author Kim Anderson, head of OSU’s Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology and the inventor of the study’s wristbands. “When we look a year after the storm, we see that several neighborhoods that are closer to industrial zones — socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods — had higher concentrations of chemicals right from the get-go, and that was only exacerbated when the hurricane came in.”
The silicone wristbands absorb chemicals from the air and from skin contact, making them a useful screening tool. Anderson has used them in similar studies in Africa, Europe and South America.
Many of the chemicals recorded in the Houston study have not yet been thoroughly tested to determine their potential health effects, researchers said. But some heavier polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been found to be carcinogenic, and phthalate exposure can have adverse effects on reproductive health.
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