Concentrations of selected heterocyclic aromatic amines among US population aged ≥ 6 years data from NHANES 2013-2014.
Data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for US population aged ≥ 6 years for 2013-2014 were used to analyze data for four heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAA), namely 2-amino-9H-pyrido2,3-bindole (AαC), 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo4,5-bpyridine (PhlP), harman, and norharman. Data were analyzed separately for children aged 6-11 years (N 416), adolescents aged 12-19 years (N 475), adults aged 20-64 years (N 1913), and seniors aged ≥ 65 years (N 458). Adult males had lower concentrations of AαC and harman than adult females (1.44 vs. 2.22 pgmL for AαC, p < 0.01 and 136.8 vs. 163.2 pgmL for harman, p 0.04). Racialethnic differences were observed in the adjusted concentrations of HCAAs. For adults, adjusted concentrations of HCAAs were lower for non-Hispanic Asians and Hispanics as compared to non-Hispanic blacks and whites. For example for AαC, the adjusted concentrations for non-Hispanic Asians, Hispanics, non-Hispanic blacks and whites were 1.16, 2.00, 2.37, and 2.16 pgmL respectively. Adjusted concentrations of AαC were found to be lower among nonsmokers as compared to smokers for adolescents (0.34 vs. 1.32 pgmL, p < 0.01), adults (0.40 vs. 7.91 pgmL, p < 0.01), and seniors (0.30 vs. 4.29 pgmL, p < 0.01). For both harman and norharman, adult nonsmokers had lower adjusted concentrations than smokers (125.7 vs. 177.6 pgmL, p < 0.01 for harman, 296.1 vs. 421.6 pgmL, p < 001, for norharman). Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke was found to be associated with higher concentrations of AαC among adolescents (p 0.01) and adults (p 0.01) and for harman (p 0.01) and norharman (p 0.01) among seniors. In conclusion, concentrations of selected HCAAs can be several fold higher among smokers as compared to nonsmokers and gender as well as raceethnicity also affect the observed concentrations of HCAA.