[Assessment of the health risk of a residential area contaminated with arsenic and lead. Biological monitoring in Mundelstrup].

Industrial use of toxic substances has resulted in contamination of the outer environment so that polluted area now constitutes a considerable environmental problem. This article describes biological monitoring employed as part of the basis for assessment of the health risk due to contaminated housing soil. As an example was chosen the environmental contamination with lead and arsenic in Mundelstrup Station Town, where a manure factory previously was situated. This area, which was found to be contaminated to a considerable extend with lead and arsenic, was subdivided for living area in 1921. The present material includes 99 residents from a housing area with 30 family houses with gardens in Mundelstrup. At the commencement of the investigation in 1988/1989, blood lead levels and arsenic levels in the urine were measured and the latter were repeated in 1989/1990. For both adults and children, the blood lead levels were the same as in the reference populations. Children below 12 years had in the average higher arsenic contents in the urine compared with women and men: 16.3 mu/l 8.6 mu/l and 11.5 mu/l, respectively. For both children and adults, the arsenic values were similar to those in a limited Danish reference population. In Ruston, an area in USA heavily polluted with arsenic, contamination of the surface was found to correspond to a factor ten times higher than in Mundelstrup where arsenic is measured at a deeper level. Correspondingly, arsenic values in the urine revealed higher average values in children, 30 micrograms/l for females and 65 micrograms/l for males. The average values for the reference group were found to be 11.3-13.0 micrograms/l.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)