Firefighters face potential exposure to various hazardous chemicals that increase their risk for numerous health issues. During responses to fires or other hazardous events, they may be exposed to, inhale or ingest toxic gases, vapors or particles.
In particular, heavy metal exposure is a major public health issue with firefighters in postindustrial cities such as Detroit. Lead and cadmium are examples of such exposures. Cadmium, a poisonous metal that has been used to electroplate materials to protect them from corrosion, was heavily used in the automobile industry and is a major source of contamination in Detroit. In addition, over 90 percent of buildings in Detroit were built prior to 1980 and are likely to contain lead-based paints.
One adverse health outcome associated with long-term environmental exposure to lead and cadmium is hearing loss. Hearing loss has devastating effects on an individual as it significantly affects quality of life and productivity. With the help of funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, a Wayne State University professor is researching gene-environment interactions to determine the association between environmental exposure to lead and cadmium and hearing loss in Detroit firefighters.
The nearly $400,000, three-year research project, “Heavy metal exposure, genetic predisposition and auditory dysfunction: A cross-sectional study in a high-risk urban cohort,” will be led by Samson Jamesdaniel, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at Wayne State University.
“We plan to test the hearing of 200 firefighters from the City of Detroit, assay bone lead and urinary cadmium levels, and assess the frequency of two distinct variants of an antioxidant gene (SOD2) in order to determine the interactions among environmental exposure to heavy metals, genetic factors and hearing loss,” said Jamesdaniel.
According to Jamesdaniel, the outcomes of this research are expected to provide a platform for development of preventive measures for minimizing harmful exposure to multiple environmental ototoxicants and reducing the risk of hearing impairment in high-risk populations.
In particular, the study is expected to directly benefit firefighters by identifying the environmental risk factors and genetic susceptibilities that contribute to hearing impairment.
“The ultimate goal will be to apply this knowledge to human remediation studies in this vulnerable population, and identify preventative measures that will protect firefighters and others from hearing loss caused by environmental exposure,” said Jamesdaniel.
消防員面臨各種有害化學物質的潛在風險，這些化學物質增加他們產生諸多健康問題的危險。在對火災或其他有害事件作出反應時，他們可能會暴露、吸入或攝入有毒氣體、蒸汽或顆粒。
特別是在像底特律這樣的後工業城市，消防員暴露在重金屬下，例如鉛和鎘，是一個主要的大眾健康問題。用於電鍍材料以防止腐蝕的有毒金屬鎘，曾在汽車工業中大量被使用，也是底特律主要的污染源。除此之外，在底特律90％以上在1980年以前建成的建築物可能有含鉛塗料。
有關長期暴露在鉛和鎘的環境下，其中一個不好的健康結果是聽力受損。聽力受損對個人具有破壞性的影響，因為它嚴重影響生活品質和生產力。一個韋恩州立大學的教授，在美國國立衛生研究院國家環境健康科學研究所的資助下，研究基因與環境的相互作用，以確定暴露在鉛與鎘的環境和底特律消防隊員的聽力受損之間的關係。
由在韋恩州立大學環境健康科學研究所的助理教授Samson Jamesdaniel博士代領的為期三年近40萬美元的研究項目“重金屬暴露，遺傳因素和聽覺功能障礙：一項高風險城市隊列的橫斷面研究。”
Jamesdaniel說“我們計劃測試200名來自底特律市的消防員的聽力，化驗骨頭裡鉛和尿液中鎘的程度，並評估抗氧化基因（SOD2）兩種不同變種的頻率，以確定暴露在重金屬環境、遺傳因素和聽力受損之間的交互作用。“
根據Jamesdaniel的說法，這項研究的結果預計將提供一個平台，用於製定減少曝露於多種環境毒物的有害物質下，和降低高危險人群聽力受損的風險的預防措施。
特別是藉由辨識造成聽力障礙的環境風險因素，和遺傳易感性，該研究預期將直接有益於消防員。
Jamesdaniel說：“最終的目標是將這些知識應用到，脆弱人群的人體修復研究中，並訂定預防措施，以保護消防員和其他人免於受環境暴露，造成聽力受損。
來源:
http://research.wayne.edu/news/new-nih-study-to-research-the-risk-of-hearing-loss-in-detroit-firefighters-28792