Dechlorane plus in dust, hair and urine: Exposure, excretion and level change

Abstract

Dechlorane plus (DP) has been detected in a variety of environmental media and in human. Measurement of DPs in hair, urine, and house dust across different habitats allows for the assessment of short-term spatial changes in human exposure to DPs, as well as their excretion in urine. This offers a significant reference point for further research on the behavior of persistent pollutants within organisms. We measured and analyzed the concentrations of DP in the hair and urine of 32 students from a university in Beijing during school and home phases, and in indoor dust from dormitories and some home environments. The results indicated that the concentrations of DP in three types of samples were higher during the home phase compared to the school phase. We compared the f_anti values and identified selective enrichment of syn-DP in hair, along with selective excretion of syn-DP in urine. Utilizing molecular docking technique, we simulated the binding effect between DP and the Megalin protein. The results demonstrated that the binding energy of anti-DP to Megalin was higher than that of syn-DP, suggesting that anti-DP has a greater propensity to bind to Megalin and be reabsorbed. This results in higher levels of syn-DP excretion in urine. Finally, we categorized students based on their participation in the organic exposure experiment and their BMI. The results indicated that the concentrations of DP in hair and urine were higher in the exposed group compared to the non-exposed group during the school year. After excluding the effect of exposure, habitat changes were more likely to affect the accumulation and excretion of DP in normal-weight students (BMI ≤24 kg/m², n = 28), while overweight students (BMI >24 kg/m², n = 4) were less affected by the effect of habitat because of their higher body fat percentage and their greater ability to accumulate DP.