Environmental tin exposure in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults and children: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2014

Abstract

Tin is a naturally occurring heavy metal that occurs in the environment in both inorganic and organic forms. Human exposure to tin is almost ubiquitous; however, surprisingly little is known about factors affecting environmental tin exposure in humans. This study analyzed demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors associated with total urinary tin levels in adults (N = 3,522) and children (N = 1,641) participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2014, a nationally representative health survey in the United States. Urinary tin levels, a commonly used biomarker of environmental tin exposure, were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Detection frequencies of tin were 87.05% in adults and 91.29% in children. Median and geometric mean levels of urinary tin in the adult population were 0.42 µg/L and 0.49 µg/L, respectively. For children, median and geometric mean levels of urinary tin were 0.60 µg/L and 0.66 µg/L, respectively. Age was identified as an important factor associated with urinary tin levels. Median tin levels in the ≥ 60 year age group were almost 2-fold higher than the 20–39 year age group. Tin levels in children were 2-fold higher than in adolescents. Race/ethnicity and household income were associated with tin levels in both adults and children. In addition, physical activity was inversely associated with urinary tin levels in adults. These results demonstrate that total tin exposures vary across different segments of the general U.S. population. Because the present study does not distinguish between organic and inorganic forms of tin, further studies are needed to better characterize modifiable factors associated with exposures to specific tin compounds, with the goal of reducing the overall exposure of the U.S. population.

Zostavax vaccine effectiveness among US elderly using real‐world evidence: Addressing unmeasured confounders by using multiple imputation after linking beneficiary surveys with Medicare claims

“…Multiple imputation works even when the missing proportion is high, so long as the data are missing at random and the observed sample's absolute size is sufficient to measure variation in key covariates. In our study, there were around 1600 survey respondents per cohort, which is as large as some US nationally representative samples . This makes us believe that our study sample is representative and sufficiently large to use multiple imputation.…”

“…In our study, there were around 1600 survey respondents per cohort, which is as large as some US nationally representative samples. 29 with relatively fast convergence. 21 However, while these techniques allowed us to address challenges with multiple imputation, we cannot exclude the possibility of residual bias resulting from the use of only a small subset of potential confounders, or loss of information from transforming categorical variables to binaries.…”

Evaluation of Fetal Exposures to Metals and Metalloids through Meconium Analyses: A Review

“…No study examined organotins in meconium, reporting only total Sn. Tin exposure is common in the US [ 98 ] and presumably in other countries as well.…”

Association between trace metals exposure and hearing loss

“…On the other hand, in human autopsies of individuals with diverse neurodegenerative diseases, significantly higher level of accumulation of Cd in locus ceruleus was observed ( 22 ). Similarly, tin as a heavy metal element, plays a critical role in neurological disease and autoimmune disease ( 23 , 24 ). Researchers and in our study, tin was dramatically associated with hearing loss.…”