Panganiban Lynn, Cortes-Maramba Nelia, Dioquino Carissa, Suplido Maria Lurenda, Ho Herbert, Francisco-Rivera Ana, Manglicmot-Yabes Ailyn
National Poison Control and Information Service, Ward 14-A, Room 100, Philippine General Hospital, Taft Avenue, Manila 1000, Philippines.
Environ Health Perspect. 2004 Jan;112(1):42-5. doi: 10.1289/ehp.6499.
Ethylenebisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs) are metabolized into ethylenethiourea (ETU), a possible human carcinogen and an antithyroid compound. In this study our goal was to correlate ETU levels with the incidence of thyroid gland disorders among banana plantation workers exposed to EBDC. We randomly selected 57 directly exposed workers and 31 indirectly exposed workers from four banana plantations and 43 workers from an organic farm; all subjects underwent complete medical examinations and laboratory tests. Results showed a higher mean thyroid-stimulating hormone measurement among exposed workers compared with the control group, although the levels were well within normal range. Nine of the exposed farmers had abnormal thyroid ultrasound findings, consisting mostly of solitary nodules, compared with three among the control group. Analysis of variance showed significantly different blood ETU levels among the directly exposed, indirectly exposed, and control groups (p < 0.001), but ETU levels in urine were not significantly different (p = 0.10). Environmental ETU levels were below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency remediation levels. Among farmers with solitary thyroid nodules, we found a very good direct correlation between the size of the nodule and blood ETU level. In this study we showed that blood ETU is a more reliable biomarker for EBDC exposure than urinary ETU; therefore, the determination of blood ETU should be part of medical surveillance efforts among workers exposed to EBDC to detect occurrences of thyroid gland disorders.
亚乙基双硫代氨基甲酸盐（EBDCs）会代谢为乙烯硫脲（ETU），后者是一种可能的人类致癌物和抗甲状腺化合物。在本研究中，我们的目标是将ETU水平与接触EBDC的香蕉种植园工人甲状腺疾病的发病率相关联。我们从四个香蕉种植园随机选取了57名直接接触工人和31名间接接触工人，以及从一个有机农场选取了43名工人；所有受试者均接受了全面的医学检查和实验室检测。结果显示，与对照组相比，接触工人的促甲状腺激素平均测量值更高，尽管这些水平仍在正常范围内。9名接触的农民甲状腺超声检查结果异常，主要为孤立性结节，而对照组中有3人。方差分析显示，直接接触组、间接接触组和对照组的血液ETU水平存在显著差异（p < 0.001），但尿中ETU水平无显著差异（p = 0.10）。环境ETU水平低于美国环境保护局的修复水平。在患有孤立性甲状腺结节的农民中，我们发现结节大小与血液ETU水平之间存在非常好的直接相关性。在本研究中，我们表明血液ETU是比尿ETU更可靠的EBDC暴露生物标志物；因此，测定血液ETU应成为接触EBDC工人医学监测工作的一部分，以检测甲状腺疾病的发生情况。
