Department of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Natural Science, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, South Korea.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2012 Jul;215(4):449-57. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2012.01.002. Epub 2012 Feb 16.
Recently, there have been several nationwide episodes involving imported toys contaminated with toxic metals and environmental hormones. In addition, cadmium intoxication has occurred due to soil contamination with cadmium from abandoned metal mines.
To investigate the distribution, extent and factors influencing the levels of toxic metals in the blood or urine of the Korean general population over twenty years of age, we studied the blood or urine concentrations of heavy metals in a representative sample of 5087 Koreans in 2008.
Multiple biological substrates were collected from each participant to determine the most suitable samples for an environmental health survey system. Information regarding exposure conditions of all subjects was collected by questionnaire-based interviews.
The geometric means of the blood lead, mercury and manganese levels were 19.1, 3.23 and 10.8 μg/L, respectively. The geometric means of urinary arsenic and cadmium concentrations were 43.5 and 0.65 μg/L, respectively. Blood mercury and urinary arsenic levels in the Korean general population were significantly higher than in European and American populations.
The higher levels of blood mercury and urinary arsenic could be explained by the greater seafood consumption among the Korean population. This biomonitoring study of blood or urine heavy metals in the Korean general population provides important reference data stratified by demographic and lifestyle factors that will be useful for the ongoing surveillance of environmental exposure of Koreans to toxic metals.
最近，有几起因进口玩具受到有毒金属和环境激素污染而引发的全国性事件。此外，由于废弃金属矿山的镉污染，也发生了镉中毒事件。
为了调查 20 岁以上韩国一般人群血液或尿液中有毒金属的分布、程度和影响因素，我们研究了 2008 年 5087 名韩国人代表性样本中重金属的血液或尿液浓度。
从每个参与者中采集了多种生物基质，以确定最适合环境健康调查系统的样本。通过基于问卷的访谈收集了所有受试者的暴露条件信息。
血液中铅、汞和锰的几何均值分别为 19.1、3.23 和 10.8μg/L。尿液中砷和镉浓度的几何均值分别为 43.5 和 0.65μg/L。韩国一般人群的血液汞和尿液砷水平明显高于欧洲和美洲人群。
韩国人群血液中汞和尿液中砷水平较高，可能是由于海产品摄入量较大。本研究对韩国一般人群血液或尿液中重金属进行了生物监测，按人口统计学和生活方式因素进行分层，为韩国人对有毒金属的环境暴露进行持续监测提供了重要的参考数据。
