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The association between residential proximity to brownfield sites and high-traffic areas and measures of immunity

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 30, pages 824–834 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

The mechanisms by which neighborhood environmental exposures influence health are poorly understood, although immune system dysregulation represents a potential biological pathway. While many neighborhood exposures have been investigated, there is little research on residential proximity to brownfield waste. Using biomarker data from 262 participants in the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study, we estimated the association between proximity to brownfields and heavy traffic and signal joint T-cell receptor excision circles (sjTRECs, a measure of naive T-cell production), C-reactive protein (CRP, a measure of systemic inflammation), and interleukin-6 (IL-6, a pro-inflammatory cytokine). We assessed residential proximity ≤200 m from brownfields and highways on all three biomarkers using multivariate regression. We demonstrated that living ≤200 m from a brownfield site was associated with a 0.30 (95% CI = 0.59, 0.02, p = 0.04) loge-unit decrease in sjTRECs per million whole blood cells, as well as non-significantly elevated levels of CRP and IL-6. Heavy traffic was not associated with any biomarker. Persons living in close proximity to brownfield sites had significantly lower naive T-cell production, suggesting accelerated immune aging. Decreased T-cell production associated with brownfield proximity may be caused by toxicant exposure in brownfield sites, or may serve as a marker of other neighborhood stressors.

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Fig. 1: Simplified conceptual diagram of two pathways leading from brownfield proximity to thymic function (as measured by sjTRECs).

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Acknowledgements

The Detroit Neighborhood Health Study received funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01 DA022720, R01 MD011728). The University of Michigan Nathan Shock Center provided funding for IL-6 and CRP testing (AG013283). Lodge was supported by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Medical Scientist Training Program (T32 GM008719–18), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (T32 ES007018), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32 HD007168), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Doctoral Merit Assistantship. Data Driven Detroit (https://datadrivendetroit.org) provided data on brownfield sites in Detroit obtained by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) in 2014 with the help of N. Urban.

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  1. Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Evans K. Lodge, Lawrence S. Engel & Allison E. Aiello

  2. Early Oncology, Discover ICA, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

    Sara Ferrando-Martínez

  3. College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Derek Wildman & Monica Uddin

  4. School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Sandro Galea

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Lodge, E.K., Engel, L.S., Ferrando-Martínez, S. et al. The association between residential proximity to brownfield sites and high-traffic areas and measures of immunity. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 30, 824–834 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-020-0226-2

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