Chillrud Steven N, Grass David, Ross James M, Coulibaly Drissa, Slavkovich Vesna, Epstein David, Sax Sonja N, Pederson Dee, Johnson David, Spengler John D, Kinney Patrick L, Simpson H James, Brandt-Rauf Paul
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Rt 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
J Urban Health. 2005 Mar;82(1):33-42. doi: 10.1093/jurban/jti006. Epub 2005 Feb 28.
The United States Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 reflected increasing concern about potential effects of low-level airborne metal exposure on a wide array of illnesses. Here we summarize results demonstrating that the New York City (NYC) subway system provides an important microenvironment for metal exposures for NYC commuters and subway workers and also describe an ongoing pilot study of NYC transit workers' exposure to steel dust. Results from the TEACH (Toxic Exposure Assessment, a Columbia and Harvard) study in 1999 of 41 high-school students strongly suggest that elevated levels of iron, manganese, and chromium in personal air samples were due to exposure to steel dust in the NYC subway. Airborne concentrations of these three metals associated with fine particulate matter were observed to be more than 100 times greater in the subway environment than in home indoor or outdoor settings in NYC. While there are currently no known health effects at the airborne levels observed in the subway system, the primary aim of the ongoing pilot study is to ascertain whether the levels of these metals in the subway air affect concentrations of these metals or related metabolites in the blood or urine of exposed transit workers, who due to their job activities could plausibly have appreciably higher exposures than typical commuters. The study design involves recruitment of 40 transit workers representing a large range in expected exposures to steel dust, the collection of personal air samples of fine particulate matter, and the collection of blood and urine samples from each monitored transit worker.
1990年美国《清洁空气法修正案》反映出人们越来越关注低水平空气传播金属暴露对多种疾病的潜在影响。在此，我们总结相关结果，这些结果表明纽约市（NYC）地铁系统为纽约市通勤者和地铁工作人员提供了一个重要的金属暴露微环境，同时还描述了一项正在进行的关于纽约市交通工作人员接触钢尘的试点研究。1999年对41名高中生开展的TEACH（毒理学暴露评估，由哥伦比亚大学和哈佛大学合作）研究结果有力地表明，个人空气样本中铁、锰和铬含量升高是由于接触纽约市地铁中的钢尘所致。在地铁环境中，观察到与细颗粒物相关的这三种金属的空气传播浓度比纽约市家庭室内或室外环境高出100倍以上。虽然目前在地铁系统中观察到的空气传播水平尚无已知的健康影响，但正在进行的试点研究的主要目的是确定地铁空气中这些金属的含量是否会影响接触过的交通工作人员血液或尿液中这些金属或相关代谢物的浓度，这些工作人员由于其工作活动，可能比普通通勤者接触到明显更高的暴露量。该研究设计包括招募40名交通工作人员，他们代表了预期接触钢尘的广泛范围，收集细颗粒物的个人空气样本，以及从每位接受监测的交通工作人员那里收集血液和尿液样本。
