Institute for Occupational and Social Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2010 Oct;83(7):803-11. doi: 10.1007/s00420-010-0516-4. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of welding as well as the impact of smoking and protection measures on biological effect markers in exhaled breath condensate. Additionally, biomonitoring of chromium, aluminium and nickel in urine was performed to quantify internal exposure.
Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and urine samples of 45 male welders and 24 male non-exposed control subjects were collected on Friday pre-shift and after 8 h of work post-shift. In EBC, biological effect markers such as malondialdehyde, nitrite, nitrate, 3-nitrotyrosine, tyrosine, hydroxyproline, proline, H(2)O(2) and pH-value were measured while aluminium, nickel, and chromium were measured in the urine samples.
Although internal exposure to aluminium, nickel and chromium in this study was low, welders showed significantly increased concentrations of all these parameters at baseline compared to non-exposed controls. Moreover, welders had higher nitrate concentrations in EBC at baseline and after shift. Nitrate concentration was considerably lower after shift if personal protection equipment was used. H(2)O(2) was increased only when subjects smoked during shift.
It has been shown that welding-associated long-term and short-term health effects could be detected in a population of welders. The results also showed that using personal protection equipment is of high importance and H(2)O(2) may be an effect marker associated with smoking rather than with welding fumes, while nitrate in EBC seems to be sensitive to welding fume exposure.
本研究旨在探讨焊接以及吸烟和防护措施对呼气冷凝物中生物效应标志物的影响。此外，还对尿液中的铬、铝和镍进行了生物监测，以量化体内暴露量。
采集了 45 名男性焊工和 24 名男性非暴露对照者周五班前和工作 8 小时后的呼气冷凝物（EBC）和尿液样本。在 EBC 中，测量了生物效应标志物如丙二醛、亚硝酸盐、硝酸盐、3-硝基酪氨酸、酪氨酸、羟脯氨酸、脯氨酸、H 2 O 2 和 pH 值，而尿液样本中则测量了铝、镍和铬。
尽管本研究中体内铝、镍和铬的暴露水平较低，但与非暴露对照组相比，焊工在基线时所有这些参数的浓度均显著升高。此外，焊工在基线和换班后 EBC 中的硝酸盐浓度较高。如果使用个人防护设备，换班后硝酸盐浓度会显著降低。只有在换班期间吸烟时，H 2 O 2 才会增加。
研究表明，焊接相关的长期和短期健康影响可以在焊工人群中检测到。结果还表明，使用个人防护设备非常重要，H 2 O 2 可能是与吸烟有关的效应标志物，而不是与焊接烟尘有关，而 EBC 中的硝酸盐似乎对焊接烟尘暴露敏感。
