The Association Between Environmental Perchlorate, Nitrate, and Thiocyanate Exposure and Oral Pain in NHANES

Environmental perchlorate, thiocyanate, and nitrate exposures and bone mineral density: a national cross-sectional study in the US adults

Associations of perchlorate, thiocyanate, and nitrate exposures with bone mineral density (BMD) in adults have not previously been studied. This study aimed to estimate the associations of individual and concurrent exposure of the three chemicals with adult BMD. Based on National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2011-2018), 1618 non-pregnant adults (age ≥ 20 years and 47.0% female) were included in this study. Survey-weighted linear regression models were used to estimate individual urinary perchlorate, thiocyanate, and nitrate concentrations with lumbar spine BMD and total BMD in adults. Then, weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models were conducted to evaluate associations of co-occurrence of the three chemicals with adult BMD. In all participants, nitrate exposure was inversely associated with lumbar spine BMD (β =  - 0.054, 95%CI: - 0.097, - 0.010). In stratification analyses, significant inverse associations were observed in female and participants older than 40 years old. In WQS regressions, significant negative associations of the weighted sum of the three chemicals with total and lumbar spine BMD (β =  - 0.014, 95%CI: - 0.021, - 0.007; β =  - 0.011, 95%CI: - 0.019, - 0.004, respectively) were found, and the dominant contributor was nitrate. In the BKMR models, non-linear dose-response associations of nitrate exposure with lumbar spine and total BMD were observed. These findings suggested that environmental perchlorate, thiocyanate, and nitrate exposure may reduce adult BMD and nitrate is the main contributor.

Associations of thiocyanate, nitrate, and perchlorate exposure with dyslipidemia: a cross-sectional, population-based analysis

The aim of this study was to assess the associations of urinary thiocyanate, nitrate, and perchlorate concentrations with dyslipidemia, individually and in combination, which has not previously been studied. Data from the 2001-2002 and 2005-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) were analyzed in this cross-sectional study. The dependent variables were continuous serum lipid variables (triglycerides [TG], total cholesterol [TC], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C], high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C], non-HDL-C, and apolipoprotein B [Apo B]) and binary serum lipid variables, with the latter reflecting dyslipidemia (elevated TG, ≥ 150 mg/dL; elevated TC, ≥ 200 mg/dL; elevated LDL-C, ≥ 130 mg/dL; lowered HDL-C, < 40 mg/dL in men and < 5 0 mg/dL in women; elevated non-HDL-C, ≥ 160 mg/dL; and elevated Apo B, ≥ 130 mg/dL). Multivariate logistic, linear, and weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression analyses were used to explore the associations of thiocyanate, nitrate, and perchlorate with the continuous and binary serum lipid variables. The linearity of the associations with the binary serum lipid variables was assessed using restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression. A total of 15,563 adults were included in the analysis. The multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses showed that thiocyanate was positively associated with multiple continuous (TG, TC, LDL-C, non-HDL-C, and Apo B, but not HDL-C) and binary (elevated TG, TC, LDL-C, and non-HDL-C) serum lipid variables, whereas perchlorate was negatively associated with elevated LDL-C. Multivariate RCS logistic regression revealed a linear dose-response relationship between thiocyanate and elevated TG, TC, LDL-C, non-HDL-C, and Apo B, but a nonlinear relationship with lowered HDL-C (inflection point = 1.622 mg/L). WQS regression showed that a mixture of thiocyanate, nitrate, and perchlorate was positively associated with all binary serum lipid variables except for Apo B. Our findings indicate that urinary thiocyanate, nitrate, and perchlorate concentrations, individually and in combination, were associated with dyslipidemia.