{"doi":"10.1093/annweh/wxaf091","title":"Association of oil spill-related volatile organic compound exposure with CVD-related biomarkers in the Gulf Long-term Follow-up Study","abstract":"BACKGROUND: During the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, oil spill response and cleanup (OSRC) workers were exposed to crude oil, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and n-hexane (BTEX-H). Growing evidence links these exposures to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Lipid and C-reactive protein levels are used to assess CVD risk and may serve as mediators of the observed associations with CVD. However, few studies have assessed associations of oil spill cleanup-related exposures with blood levels of lipids and C-reactive protein (CRP). OBJECTIVE: This study examined associations of oil spill cleanup-related exposure to each individual BTEX-H chemical, total (aggregate sum) BTEX-H, and the BTEX-H mixture with blood lipids and CRP among OSRC workers in the Gulf Long-term Follow-up (GuLF) Study. METHODS: Subjects comprised 2,544 OSRC workers who completed a home visit (May 2011 to May 2013) and had CVD biomarker measurements. Cumulative exposures to BTEX-H (ppb-days) were estimated using a job-exposure matrix that linked air measurements with self-reported Deepwater Horizon work histories. Study biomarkers were lipids, including low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol, and high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP), which were measured in blood samples collected during the home visit. Multivariable linear regression was used to estimate mean differences and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations of quartiles of BTEX-H with lipid and hsCRP levels. We log-transformed hsCRP due to a non-normal distribution. We used quantile g-computation to assess the joint effect of the BTEX-H mixture. RESULTS: Each BTEX-H chemical was associated with elevations in total cholesterol up to 3 yr after exposure, with the strongest effect estimates in the top quartile, ranging from 2.3 to 5.1 mg/dL. A one quartile simultaneous increase in the BTEX-H mixture was associated with a 1.7 mg/dL increase in total cholesterol. While trends were less consistent for hsCRP, most estimates were above the null and a one quartile increase in exposure to the BTEX-H mixture was associated with a 3% increase in hsCRP. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that oil spill cleanup-related BTEX-H exposures were associated with elevations in some CVD biomarkers.","journal":"Annals of Work Exposures and Health","year":2025,"id":549877,"datarank":0.16479184330021646,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"self_citation_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9649,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1445267,"name":"Jessie K Edwards","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1445268,"name":"Anna M Kucharska-Newton","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1445269,"name":"Eric A Whitsel","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":689916,"name":"Kate Christenbury","orcid":"0000-0003-1119-0236","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1445270,"name":"W Braxton Jackson","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":281523,"name":"Kaitlyn G. Lawrence","orcid":"0000-0002-8360-9326","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1445271,"name":"Patricia A Stewart","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1445272,"name":"Mark R Stenzel","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1433341,"name":"Dale P Sandler","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1445273,"name":"Lawrence S Engel","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":969248,"name":"Opal P. Patel","orcid":"0000-0001-7831-2758","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:54:12.321988Z","pmid":"41564268","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}