Silicone Wristbands for Measuring Human Exposure to Organic Chemicals: Uses and Benefits for Human Biological Research

Abstract

Increasing human exposure to environmental contaminants is a growing concern and has become an important factor within human biological variation and health outcomes. Yet, traditional exposure assessment methods are often limited in their ability to capture the complexity and variation of chemical exposure, or are invasive, costly, and challenging to apply in field-based research. Here, we introduce silicone wristbands as an innovative and noninvasive tool for measuring personal passive chemical exposure and highlight opportunities for their use in human biological research. The wristbands sequester organic chemicals across multiple media (e.g., air, water, dust) and capture both inhalation and dermal absorption. We describe how they work, how to deploy them in the field, how to extract and analyze the chemical composition, and their methodological advantages for human biological research. A case study assessing exposure to flame retardants and the relationship to body size among girls in Costa Rica demonstrates the application for human biological research in a tropical and remote setting. We argue that wristbands provide a noninvasive method for assessing individual exposomes and understanding how environments are embodied and become a meaningful axis of human biological variation. Additionally, they motivate interdisciplinary, ethical, and community-engaged research in diverse and hard-to-reach populations, aligning with future directions of the field of human biology.