Dipartimento Interdisciplinare di Medicina, Sezione di Medicina del Lavoro "E.C. Vigliani", Università di Bari, Bari, Italy.
Med Lav. 2012 Sep-Oct;103(5):372-81.
To assess the critical issues concerning the use of urinary inorganic arsenic (iAs), including As3, As5, monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), as biomarker of internal dose in order to monitor environmental and occupational exposure to inorganic As, considering the influence of diet and drinking water on excretion of iAs.
The design protocol stipulated collection of weekly urine samples from 6 male subjects for 5 consecutive months. In all the urine samples, iAs was determined by Hydride Generation-Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (HG-AAS). In the subjects with iAs higher than 35 microg/L, Biological Exposure Index (BEI) proposed by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), urinary arsenic speciation was performed by HPLC-ICP-MS. Exposure to airborne As was evaluated monthly using personal environmental samplers worn for 8 hours. Throughout the study, the participants filled out a daily food diary, also detailing types of water drunk.
Exposure to airborne As was invariably below the limit of detection, equal to 1 ng/m3. A total of 77 urine samples were collected. iAs was always detectable and was higher in 7 urine samples, obtained from 5 of the 6 subjects examined, than the BEI. Among foods with a high As content, the intake of seafood and fish within 72 hours before providing the sample seems to be the principal source of the iAs concentrations, while the intake of rice or drinking water showed no influence on this biological marker. Instead, drinking wine within 24 hours before urine sample collection can cause a significant increase in the excretion of iAs.
In populations that eat large amounts of fish and seafood, the use of iAs to monitor occupational and environmental exposure to inorganic As seems to present some problems, and urinary As speciation may be essential at least in cases with As measurements above the biological limit values. In any case, a diet sheet reporting all foods eaten within 3 days of urine collection seems to be an indispensable tool to ensure a correct interpretation of the results.
评估使用尿液无机砷（iAs），包括 As3、As5、一甲基砷酸（MMA）和二甲基砷酸（DMA）作为内剂量生物标志物来监测环境和职业暴露于无机砷的关键问题，同时考虑饮食和饮用水对 iAs 排泄的影响。
设计方案规定，从 6 名男性研究对象中每周采集一次尿液样本，连续采集 5 个月。所有尿液样本均采用氢化物发生-原子吸收分光光度法（HG-AAS）测定 iAs。在 iAs 水平高于 35μg/L 的研究对象中，采用高效液相色谱-电感耦合等离子体质谱法（HPLC-ICP-MS）对尿液砷形态进行分析。每月使用个人环境采样器评估空气中的砷暴露情况，采样器佩戴 8 小时。在整个研究过程中，参与者填写了一份日常食物日记，详细记录了饮用水的种类。
空气中的砷暴露始终低于检测限，即 1ng/m3。共采集了 77 份尿液样本。iAs 始终可检测到，且在 6 名研究对象中的 5 名中，有 7 份尿液样本的 iAs 水平高于 BEI。在高砷含量的食物中，在提供样本前 72 小时内摄入海鲜和鱼类似乎是 iAs 浓度的主要来源，而摄入大米或饮用水对该生物标志物没有影响。相反，在采集尿液样本前 24 小时内饮用葡萄酒会导致 iAs 排泄量显著增加。
在大量食用海鲜和鱼类的人群中，使用 iAs 监测职业和环境暴露于无机砷可能会存在一些问题，至少在砷测量值超过生物限值的情况下，尿液砷形态分析可能是必不可少的。在任何情况下，在收集尿液样本前 3 天内报告所有食用食物的饮食清单似乎是确保正确解释结果的不可或缺的工具。
