Effectiveness of dermal cleaning interventions for reducing firefighters’ exposures to PAHs and genotoxins

Figures & data

Table 1. Self-reported participant demographic information (N = 88).

		N	Mean (5th–95th percentile)
Gender	Male	82
	Female	6
Age, years			34.4 (33.5–49.0)
Years as a firefighter			5.5 (5–18.8)
Current title	Firefighter	82
	Fire inspector	4
	Lieutenant	1
	Captain	1
Age at start of firefighting career, years			26.6 (26–38)
Second job	Yes	35
	No	53
Fitness level	Excellent	8
	Very good	40
	Good	35
	Fair	4
	Poor	1
Average times a week of ≥30 min of continuous exercise activity outside of work	<1	1
	1–2	14
	2–3	14
	3–4	38
	>5	17
Overall health	Excellent	14
	Very good	43
	Good	30
	Fair	1
	Poor	0
Weight	Overweight	13
	Just about right	74
	Underweight	1

Table 2. Concentration of PAHs in personal air samples (N = 27) collected during fire training activities (in μg/m³).

PAH	Mean	SD	Min	Max	Detection frequency
Naphthalene	390.26	463.95	21.17	2,502.27	100%
Acenaphthylene	141.94	117.93	31.70	568.46	100%
Acenaphthene	9.61	6.97	1.91	35.68	100%
Fluorene	26.43	18.96	5.81	97.16	100%
Dibenzothiophene	0.49	1.28	<LOD	6.58	96%
Phenanthrene	77.26	66.19	21.52	350.67	100%
Anthracene	20.00	13.98	4.21	73.41	100%
Fluoranthene	23.76	16.85	6.39	91.02	100%
Pyrene	29.83	23.51	7.10	108.17	100%
Retene	5.52	2.76	1.75	12.85	100%
Benz[a]anthracene	6.11	4.98	1.42	25.96	100%
Chrysene	6.85	5.39	1.62	28.39	100%
Benzo[b]fluoranthene	3.44	2.80	0.69	14.54	100%
Benzo[k]fluoranthene	4.49	3.72	1.05	19.77	100%
Benzo[e]pyrene	2.88	2.37	0.69	12.39	100%
Benzo[a]pyrene	5.29	4.50	1.17	23.30	100%
Indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene	2.76	2.44	<LOD	12.26	96%
Dibenz[a,h]anthracene	0.30	0.29	<LOD	1.48	93%
Benzo[ghi]perylene	2.21	2.00	<LOD	10.19	96%
Total PAHs	759.44	685.39	200.87	3,969.40

Each fire training scenario included at least one individual wearing a personal air sampler; not every participant wore a personal air sampler.

<LOD = below limit of detection; PAH = polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.

Figure 1. Boxplots illustrating osmolality-corrected urinary concentrations of (A) 1-hydroxypyrene, (B) Ʃhydroxyphenanthrenes, (C) Ʃhydroxyfluorenes, and (D) Ʃhydroxynaphthalenes in firefighters before live fire training (pre-fire) and after live fire training (post-fire). The box limits represent the interquartile range (i.e., 25th to 75th percentile), the diamonds represent the mean value, the solid line represents the group median, and the whiskers extend to the 5th and 95th percentiles. The asterisks (***) indicate a significant difference between pre- and post-fire levels at p < 0.0001 using a paired t test.

Table 3. Fold-change decreases post-decontamination compared to post-fire in PAHs on skin surface samples (N = 22).

	Wipe A				Wipe B				Detergent and water				Control (no decontamination)
	GM	SE	5th percentile	95th percentile	GM	SE	Min	Max	GM	SE	Min	Max	GM	SE	Min	Max
Individual PAHs
Naphthalene	1.59	0.47	0.16	18.10	0.91	0.14	0.23	2.69	0.61*	0.13	0.10	1.30	0.54	0.21	0.01	4.90
Acenaphthylene	1.26	0.40	0.15	14.17	0.92	0.22	0.07	4.09	0.45**	0.11	0.04	1.83	1.42	0.52	0.04	25.35
Acenaphthene	2.29	1.17	0.12	202.50	0.92	0.31	0.03	3.48	0.80**	0.28	0.03	2.74	1.01	0.33	0.04	5.65
Fluorene	0.67	0.34	0.01	5.57	0.66	0.33	0.01	1.35	0.35	0.22	0.00	11.01	0.94	0.44	0.00	7.85
Dibenzothiophene	1.05	0.69	0.00	13.29	0.89	0.56	0.00	3.58	0.74	0.44	0.00	3.06	1.60	0.90	0.02	112.98
Phenanthrene	0.75	0.30	0.02	7.81	0.56	0.24	0.01	1.30	0.36*	0.17	0.00	17.01	0.94	0.40	0.01	21.01
Anthracene	0.59	0.26	0.01	5.66	0.89	0.42	0.01	21.78	0.38*	0.14	0.01	1.50	1.22	0.59	0.01	21.57
Fluoranthene	1.17	0.32	0.28	11.84	0.55	0.20	0.01	2.63	0.35*	0.17	0.00	12.56	1.12	0.36	0.13	6.02
Pyrene	0.76	0.25	0.03	6.73	0.49	0.19	0.01	6.80	0.29**	0.10	0.01	1.33	1.10	0.31	0.13	5.78
Retene	0.97	0.19	0.27	3.26	0.56	0.16	0.01	2.16	0.41**	0.11	0.02	1.55	1.37	0.39	0.09	23.80
Benz[a]anthracene	0.92	0.35	0.04	30.95	0.44	0.26	0.01	32.49	0.28**	0.10	0.02	3.26	1.57	0.75	0.02	52.25
Chrysene	0.76	0.20	0.09	3.77	0.70	0.34	0.01	11.04	0.27**	0.09	0.01	1.44	0.99	0.42	0.02	24.15
Benzo[b]fluoranthene	1.00	0.23	0.10	7.13	0.99	0.25	0.08	7.71	0.97	0.15	0.13	1.43	1.40	0.44	0.10	12.32
Benzo[ghi]perylene	1.55	0.54	0.10	28.85	1.57	0.37	0.12	7.28	0.88	0.24	0.14	7.42	1.86	0.61	0.12	18.86
PAH groupings
LMW PAHs	1.03	0.22	0.16	5.60	0.81	0.12	0.17	2.03	0.58**	0.10	0.08	1.37	0.81	0.22	0.03	5.14
HMW PAHs	0.84	0.12	0.31	2.37	0.61*	0.13	0.09	1.47	0.45**	0.09	0.05	1.52	1.11	0.21	0.20	5.45
Total PAHs	1.02	0.19	0.25	5.49	0.77	0.12	0.16	1.68	0.53**	0.07	0.10	1.34	0.93	0.21	0.08	3.89

Fold-change was calculated using the skin concentration after decontamination divided by the skin concentration before decontamination following fire exposure. Values below 1 signify a decrease in skin exposure levels after decontamination compared to before. Values are bolded when significantly different from control (p < 0.05).

* and ** signify when post-decontamination is significantly lower than pos-tfire as determined by a paired t test, p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively.

GM = geometric mean; SE = standard error; LMW = low molecular weight; HMW = high molecular weight; PAH = polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.

Benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[e]pyrene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene, and dibenz[a,h]anthracene were >97% below detection thus were omitted from analyses.

Table 4. Calculation of absorption time for parent PAHs of the urinary metabolites measured.

		Post-fire skin concentration (ng/cm^2) (N = 88)		Calculated absorption time (seconds)
PAH	Dermal absorption flux^a (ng cm^−2 hour^−1)	GM	Max	For GM	For Max
Pyrene	3.01	0.026	0.12	31.10	148.21
Phenanthrene	4.02	0.05	1.09	44.78	979.18
Fluorene	22.16	0.009	0.35	1.46	57.53
Naphthalene	96.8	0.13	1.32	4.83	49.01

^a From Silva et al. (2021).

PAH = polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

Silva J, Marques-da-Silva D, Lagoa R. 2021. Reassessment of the experimental skin permeability coefficients of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organophosphorus pesticides. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 86:103671. doi:10.1016/j.etap.2021.103671

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Data availability statement

Data are not publicly available due to the privacy of the human participants involved.