Environmental Substances Associated with Osteoporosis–A Scoping Review

Hanna Elonheimo, Rosa Lange, Hanna Tolonen and Marike Kolossa-Gehring
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Hanna Elonheimo: Department of Public Health Solutions, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), 00271 Helsinki, Finland
Rosa Lange: German Environment Agency (UBA), 14195 Berlin, Germany
Hanna Tolonen: Department of Public Health Solutions, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), 00271 Helsinki, Finland
Marike Kolossa-Gehring: German Environment Agency (UBA), 14195 Berlin, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: Introduction: Osteoporosis is a disease having adverse effects on bone health and causing fragility fractures. Osteoporosis affects approximately 200 million people worldwide, and nearly 9 million fractures occur annually. Evidence exists that, in addition to traditional risk factors, certain environmental substances may increase the risk of osteoporosis. Methods: The European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) is a joint program coordinating and advancing human biomonitoring in Europe. HBM4EU investigates citizens’ exposure to several environmental substances and their plausible health effects aiming to contribute to policymaking. In HBM4EU, 18 priority substances or substance groups were selected. For each, a scoping document was prepared summarizing existing knowledge and health effects. This scoping review is based on these chemical-specific scoping documents and complementary literature review. Results: A possible link between osteoporosis and the body burden of heavy metals, such as cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb), and industrial chemicals such as phthalates and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) was identified. Conclusions: Evidence shows that environmental substances may be related to osteoporosis as an adverse health effect. Nevertheless, more epidemiological research on the relationship between health effects and exposure to these chemicals is needed. Study results are incoherent, and pervasive epidemiological studies regarding the chemical exposure are lacking.

Keywords: osteoporosis; chemical exposure; cadmium (Cd); lead (Pb); phthalates; per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs); HBM4EU (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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