Associations Between Urinary Concentrations of Non-Persistent Pesticide Exposure, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Cardiometabolic Health

Recent literature has established environmental pollutants to be associated with health risk. However, it remains unclear whether the less studied organophosphate (OP) pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) influence cardiometabolic health independent of BMI. The first study in this thesis used 2,227 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). It was demonstrated that most OPs are associated with a detrimental cardiometabolic health outcome with higher BMIs amplifying health risk. However one metabolite (dimethylphosphate) was associated with advantageous health outcomes. In the second study, 6,159 NHANES participants were used to demonstrate that high levels of PAH are positively and negatively associated with obesity. PAH was also associated with a greater risk of metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes, independent of BMI. Thus, OP and PAH influence obesity-related health risk, however, more research is needed to further elucidate the mechanistic pathways associated with OP, PAH and health.