Researchers are now asking wildland firefighters to wear silicone wristbands that absorb organic chemicals in the environment. They hope to use these low-cost, noninvasive, passive detectors as an additional tool to track the array of potentially harmful compounds firefighters may be exposed to. Although the wristbands have some limitations, they allow researchers to detect many chemicals that may otherwise be difficult to measure in the body—“in addition to ones that you can’t measure,” Burgess says.
Exposure monitoring with personal silicone wristband samplers was demonstrated in Peru in four agriculture and urban communities where logistic and practical constraints hinder use of more traditional approaches. Wristbands and associated methods enabled quantitation of 63 pesticides and screening for 1397 chemicals including environmental contaminants and personal care products.
Our approach combines silicone wristband personal samplers and DNA damage quantification from hair follicles, and was tested as part of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project involving ten Latino children from farmworker households in North Carolina.
We detected between 2 and 10 pesticides per person with novel sampling devices worn by 35 participants who were actively engaged in farming in Diender, Senegal. Participants were recruited to wear silicone wristbands for each of two separate periods of up to 5 days.
Organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) are widely used as replacements for polybrominated diphenyl ethers in consumer products. With high detection in indoor environments and increasing toxicological evidence suggesting a potential for adverse health effects, there is a growing need for reliable exposure metrics to examine individual exposures to PFRs. Silicone wristbands have been used as passive air samplers for quantifying exposure in the general population and occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Silicone wristbands can be used as passive sampling tools for measuring personal environmental exposure to organic compounds. Due to the lightweight and simple design, the wristband may be a useful technique for measuring children's exposure.
During a single week back in August in which I bopped in and around New York City, I was exposed to at least 16 hazardous chemicals. These included phthalate chemicals of the type banned in kids toys and pacifiers, flame retardants such as TCPP and TPP, and Galaxolide, a common fragrance found in cleaning and beauty products.
I’m aware of the sobering details because of a wearable.
This Wristband Will Tell You Which Chemicals You're Exposed To Every Day
We live in a pretty toxic world. How toxic? This new wearable will let you know—and you probably won't like the results.
We tend to blame bad genes for breast cancer and Alzheimer's, but few diseases are purely genetic. The "exposome"—all the things we're exposed to throughout our lives—often plays a bigger role than DNA. That includes the obvious, like diet and exercise, but also factors that are harder to track, like the chemicals that surround us.
A new wearable called MyExposome is designed to reveal which chemicals are actually part of your everyday life. Strap on the wristband for a week, and it absorbs chemicals—from pesticides to flame retardants—along with you. At the end of the week, you mail it back to a lab to learn about the invisible part of your world.
