Diet is a contributor to environmental contaminants in Norwegian children

Monitoring of environmental contaminants and associations with dietary intake is important to secure a safe and environmentally sustainable diet.

Background: Environmental contaminants are unwanted substances from food, water, air, and consumer products that can be harmful to our health. A key component of the World Health Organization’s definition of a sustainable diet is that the food we eat should be safe. Monitoring of the level of environmental contaminants we are exposed to through the diet is therefore important for food safety and the sustainability of our diets.

Methods: The Norwegian Environmental Biobank (NEB) is a sub-study of the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) that was established to monitor levels of environmental contaminants in the population over time and to study how these substances affect our health. In 2016-2017, levels of environmental contaminants in urine and blood samples were collected in NEB from 669 children in the age of 7-14 years living in different parts of Norway. Dietary data were collected through a questionnaire, which also included questions about use of personal care products, living environment and other lifestyle factors.

Results: The children in the survey had a diet primarily in line with the dietary recommendations from the Norwegian Directorate of Health, but the intake of vegetables, fruit and berries was lower than recommended. Most of the children had a wide range of persistent and non-persistent environmental contaminants in their bodies. Preliminary analyses indicated known associations between food intakes and contaminants, e.g., the association between fish intake and levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Results from analyses of associations between dietary intake of triads of mother, father and child and the levels of environmental contaminants in the children will be available by August 2024 and presented at the conference.

Conclusion: Associations between dietary intake and environmental contaminants in children are important to monitor, as a sustainable diet should be both healthy and safe for current and future generations.