The industrial production of insects for waste management or as a protein source is becoming vital to our society. Large volumes of manure are produced by concentrated animal facilities around the globe that must be managed, utilized, and disposed of properly. Flies offer a partial solution with their abilities to reduce these wastes and heavy metal pollutants. Meat and crop proteins are being supplemented by insect proteins for many feeds across the globe, yet science-based studies behind the mass-rearing of insects are still in their infancy. In the current study, the percent change in the composition of nutrients, heavy metals, and fiber, in dairy, poultry, and swine manure degraded by either black soldier fly (BSF) or house fly (HF) larvae was explored. Pre-digested and post-digested manure samples were collected from four independent studies that differed in production scale (number of larvae and feeding regimen): 1) BSF small-scale (100 larvae fed incrementally), 2) HF small-scale (100 larvae fed incrementally), 3) BSF large-scale (10,000 larvae fed a single time), and 4) HF large-scale (4,000 larvae fed a single time). Results indicate that nitrogen is a key nutrient impacted by larval digestion of manure by both species, regardless of scale. However, scale significantly impacted reductions of other nutrients, as did the type of manure in which the insects were reared. Ultimately, this study demonstrated that manure type and rearing scale impact the ability of BSF and HF larvae to reduce nutrients and heavy metals in manure, and thus insect management procedures need to be congruent with production emphases of the insects for waste management or protein products. Failure to take scale into consideration could lead to inaccurate assumptions related to industrialized efforts on this topic.

Pregnant women are widely exposed to organophosphate (OP) pesticides, which are potentially neurotoxicant for the developing fetus. We aimed to identify principal demographic and dietary predictors of OP pesticide exposure among 450 pregnant women participating in the New York University Children’s Health and Environment Study (enrolled 2016–19). Urinary concentrations of six dialkyl phosphate (DAP) metabolites (3 dimethyl (DM) metabolites and 3 diethyl (DE) metabolites) of OP pesticides were determined at three time points across pregnancy. At mid-gestation, the Diet History Questionnaire II was used to assess women’s dietary intake over the past year. Demographic characteristics were obtained using questionnaires and/or electronic health records. We used linear mixed models to evaluate the associations of demographic and food groups with DAP metabolite levels, and partial-linear single-index (PLSI) models to analyze the contribution proportions of food groups to DAP metabolite concentrations and the dose-response relationships between them. We observed that pregnant women in NYC had lower levels of OP pesticide metabolites than pregnant populations in Europe, Asia, and other regions in the U.S. Having lower pre-pregnancy body mass index and being Asian, employed, and single were associated with higher DAP metabolite concentrations. Fruit and grain intakes were associated with higher ∑DM, ∑DE, and ∑DAP levels. ∑DE concentrations increased 9.0% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.2%, 17.4%) per two-fold increase in dairy consumption, whereas ∑DE concentrations decreased 1.8% (95%CI = −3.1%, −0.4%) per two-fold increase in seafood consumption. The PLSI model indicated that among the food mixture, fruit and grains were the main food groups contributed to higher levels of ∑DAP, while meat contributed to lower levels of ∑DAP. The contribution proportions of fruit, grains, and meat were 18.7%, 17.9%, and 39.3%, respectively. Our results suggest that fruit, grains, and meat are major dietary components associated with OP pesticide exposure in urban pregnant women.

Food products are inevitably contaminated by flame retardants throughout their lifecycle (i.e., during production, use, and disposal). In order to evaluate the dietary intake of legacy and emerging halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) in typical market food in China, we investigate the distribution and profile of 27 legacy polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and 16 emerging HFRs (EHFRs) in 9 food categories (meat, poultry, aquatic food, eggs, dairy products, cereals, vegetables, nuts and fruits, and sugar). A total of 105 food samples collected from three markets in Nanjing, eastern China were included for evaluation. The highest concentrations of PBDEs and EHFRs were found in aquatic foods (means of 0.834 ng/g wet weight (ww) and 0.348 ng/g ww, respectively), and the lowest concentrations were found in sugar (means of 0.020 ng/g ww for PBDEs and 0.014 ng/g ww for EHFRs). 2,2′,4-tribromodiphenyl ether (BDE-17), a legacy HFR, and hexabromobenzene (HBBz), an EHFR, were the predominant pollutants in the investigated food samples. Concentrations of HBBz and 2,3-dibromopropyl tribromophenyl ether (DPTE) were comparable to those of some PBDEs in certain food samples. The concentrations of the total EHFRs and total PBDEs found in animal-based food samples were significantly greater than those in plant-based food samples. Comparison of the estimated total dietary intake of HFRs and their corresponding non-cancer reference dose (United States Environmental Protection Agency) suggests a low overall health risk. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to simultaneously determine 27 PBDEs and 16 EHFRs in representative foods from Chinese markets. BDE-17, HBBz, and DPTE were the predominant congeners among the 43 investigated HFRs and meat and aquatic foods were the primary sources of PBDEs and EHFRs to the total local dietary intake.

Hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) are the subject of recent interest and potential risk assessment particularly in China due to its ubiquitous existence in a variety of environmental media. This paper reviews the recent studies conducted on HBCDs in different environmental media (air, soil, water, river sediment, sewage sludge, biota and daily food) in China. At the same time, human health risks via food and occupational exposure of HBCDs in production plants, expanded polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) plants were assessed. The review reveals that HBCDs levels of air, soil, sediment, sewage sludge, biota and food presented a geographical variation in the eastern coastal regions of China. There were many factors resulting in the variation, such as sampling sites, climate and analytical method. In terms of diastereoisomer, α-HBCD and γ-HBCD were the predominant diastereoisomers in air, soil, sediment, and sewage sludge. In the water, α-HBCD and γ-HBCD shared the major proportion to the total HBCDs. However, only α-HBCD was the predominant diastereoisomer in biota. With regard to human exposure pathway to HBCDs, food was the major route for human exposure to HBCDs, especially meat. In addition, soil and road dust were also important exposure pathways. Furthermore, workers and residents, especially infants in and around waste dumping sites and industrial areas are exposed to the highest HBCDs levels among all the populations studied thus far. HBCDs posed a potential threat to the environment and human health. Therefore, risk assessment and management have an important role to play in preventing and mitigating HBCDs risks.

Based on the 5th Chinese Total Diet Study (TDS) carried out in 2011, the dietary exposure of Chinese population to three currently used brominated flame retardants (BFRs), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and decabrominated diphenyl ether (BDE-209), was estimated and the related health risks were assessed. Levels of the three BFRs were determined in 80 composite samples from four animal-origin food groups. The average levels of BFRs in various food groups ranged from 0.671 to 5.76 ng/g lipid weight (lw). The levels of TBBPA were lower than those of HBCD but higher than those of BDE-209. Moreover, average contamination levels of TBBPA and HBCD in TDS 2011 were found to be 3 to 30 times higher than those observed in TDS 2007 in the four food groups, indicating an increase in TBBPA and HBCD in the environment during 2007–2011. The average estimated daily intakes (EDIs) of TBBPA, HBCD and BDE-209 via food consumption for a “standard Chinese man” were 1.34, 1.51 and 0.96 ng/kg bw/day, respectively. Meat and meat products were found to be the major contributor to the daily dietary intake because the consumption of meat and meat products were significantly higher than that of other food groups in China. In comparison, the levels and EDIs of BFRs in this study were found to be higher than those in most studies worldwide. However, the large margin of exposure (MOE), with at least 1.1 × 105 calculated following the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approach, indicates that the estimated dietary exposure to these three BFRs is unlikely to raise significant health concerns. In addition, a comparison between the contamination levels of TBBPA, HBCD, BDE-209 and some novel BFRs in food samples from TDS 2011 indicated an obvious shift in the industrial production and usage pattern between PBDE and non-PBDE BFRs in China.

This study assessed the level of 24 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in Korean foods following a Progressive Total Diet Study (TDS). The experiments comprised 96 types of dietetically representative foods, all were either cooked or edible raw. PBDEs were widely encountered in foodstuffs with the highest concentration in plant oils, fishes and shellfishes. Of all congeners tested for, BDE-47 was the most predominant and encountered in almost all food items except meats. The presence of nona-BDEs at significant levels indicated that Korean environments are still contaminated by deca-BDE. The daily dietary intake of PBDEs was estimated to be 63 ng d−1. The highest PBDEs intake was observed in the 19–39 year old group and gradually decreased as age increased. Our study suggests that the TDS approach using foods in the table-ready form should be used for a better estimation of dietary exposure to PBDEs.

Placenta and umbilical cord blood are important media for investigating maternal–fetal exposure to environmental pollutants. Historically hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) were once widely-used in China. In this study, residues of HCHs were measured in placenta and umbilical cord blood samples for 40 women from Beijing. The measured median values of HCHs were 62.0 and 68.8 ng/g fat in placenta and umbilical cord blood, respectively. Concentrations of HCHs in placenta and umbilical cord blood of urban cohort were higher than those of rural group due to enhanced consumption of fish, meat, and milk. Residues of HCHs in placenta were significantly correlated with total food consumption, dietary intake, and maternal age, and could be predicted using the parameters dependent upon ingestion of meat and milk. The transplacental exposure of fetuses to HCHs was revealed by a close association between the residual levels in the paired placenta and the paired umbilical cord blood samples.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in diet are a health concern and their monitoring in food has been introduced in the European Union. In developing countries, EDC dietary exposure data are scarce, especially from areas perceived as pollution hotspots, including industrialized countries like India. Several persistent organic pollutants (POPs) act as EDCs and pose a pressure to human health mainly through dietary exposure. In the present study, a range of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), dioxins and furans were measured in several food items collected from Indian urban (Delhi) and peri-urban (Dehradun) areas. Food basket contamination data were used to estimate EDC dietary exposure and compare it with that of the average European population estimated from available monitoring data. All the target contaminants were found in most food items, especially in dairies and meat products. OCPs were the main contributers to the measured EDC contamination. Food supplied to Delhi's markets had higher EDC contamination than that supplied to the peri-urban market in Dehradun. Despite lax compliance and control measures, Indian dietary exposure of OCPs and PBDEs were comparable with that of Europe and were lower for PCBs and dioxins. Higher meat consumption in Europe only partly explained this pattern which was driven also by the higher EDC residues in some European food items. A substantial part of endocrine disrupting potential in the diet derives from food and animal feeds internationally traded between developed and developing countries. With increasingly globalized food systems, internationally harmonized policies on EDC content in food can lead to better protection of health in both these contexts.

Polybrominated biphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are commonly added to electronic products for flame-retardation effects, and are attracting more and more attentions due to their potential toxicity, durability and bioaccumulation. This study conducts a sysmtematic review to understand the human exposure to PBDEs from e-waste recycling, especially exploring the exposure pathways and human burden of PBDEs as well as investigating the temporal trend of PBDEs exposure worldwide. The results show that the particular foods (contaminated fish, poultry, meat and breast milk) ingestion, indoor dust ingestion and indoor air inhalation may be key factors leading to human health risks of PBDEs exposure in e-waste recycling regions. Residents and some vulnerable groups (occupational workers and children) in e-waste recycling areas may face higher exposure levels and health risks. PBDE exposure is closely related to exposure level, exposure duration, e-waste recycling methods, and dietary customs. High levels of PBDEs are found in human tissues (breast milk, hair, blood (serum), placenta and other tissues) in e-waste areas, at far higher levels than in other areas. Existing data indicate that PBDE exposure levels do not present any apparent downward trend, and will possibly cause serious human diseases. More epidemiological studies are still needed to provide a solid basis for health risk assessment.

A Single Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (SPAMS) was deployed in the urban area of Chongqing to characterize the particles present during a severe particulate pollution event that occurred in winter 2014–2015. The measurements were made at a time when residents engaged in traditional outdoor meat smoking activities to preserve meat before the Chinese Spring Festival. The measurement period was predominantly characterized by stagnant weather conditions, highly elevated levels of PM2.5, and low visibility. Eleven major single particle types were identified, with over 92.5% of the particles attributed to biomass burning emissions. Most of the particle types showed appreciable signs of aging in the stagnant air conditions. To simulate the meat smoking activities, a series of controlled smoldering experiments was conducted using freshly cut pine and cypress branches, both with and without wood logs. SPAMS data obtained from these experiments revealed a number of biomass burning particle types, including an elemental and organic carbon (ECOC) type that proved to be the most suitable marker for meat smoking activities. The traditional activity of making preserved meat in southwestern China is shown here to be a major source of particulate pollution. Improved measures to reduce emissions from the smoking of meat should be introduced to improve air quality in regions where smoking meat activity prevails.