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REVIEW article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1398272

Association between air pollutants and thyroid disorders and thyroid hormones levels: A scoping review of epidemiologic evidence

Provisionally accepted
Kaijie Yang Kaijie Yang Guofeng Zhang Guofeng Zhang Yongze Li Yongze Li *
  • The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Over the past two decades, the incidence of thyroid disorders has been steadily increasing.There is evidence to suggest that air pollution may be one of the aetiological factors of thyroid diseases. This comprehensive review aimed to examine the evidence related to air pollutants and thyroid disorders and thyroid hormones levels from an epidemiological perspective.The scoping review adopted a systematic approach to search for, identify, and include peerreviewed articles published in English. We performed a comprehensive search of three databases-PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science to identify relevant literature on the relationship between air pollution (particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2)) exposure and thyroid disorders, including hypothyroidism, congenital hypothyroidism (CH), thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer, autoimmune thyroid diseases, as well as thyroid hormone levels, such as thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3), and free thyroxine (FT4). Articles published until August 1, 2023, were included.A total of 3,373 studies were retrieved, and among them, 25 studies covering eight different air pollutants were relevant. The most frequently studied air pollutants in this review included fine particulate matter (with fine particulate matter (PM2.5), n=21; inhalable particles (PM10), n=10; PM10-2.5, n=1) and nitrogen oxides (with NO2, n=13; NOx, n=3). The thyroid disorders and thyroid hormone levels most commonly associated with evidence of air pollution exposure were hypothyroidism (n=7) and TSH (n=12).Despite variations in study designs and exposure assessments, the findings consistently highlight the substantial health risks that air pollution, particularly PM2.5, poses to thyroid health, especially among vulnerable populations. Given that our study was limited to epidemiological investigations and the increasing prevalence of toxic substances in the environment, there is an urgent need for further research to elucidate the mechanisms by which these pollutants disrupt thyroid function and contribute to the development of thyroid diseases.

    Keywords: Air Pollutants, Scoping review, Thyroid disease, Epidemiology, Atmospheric particulate matter

    Received: 09 Mar 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang, Zhang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yongze Li, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110000, Liaoning Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.