Rosati Maria Valeria, Casale Teodorico, Ciarrocca Manuela, Weiderpass Elisabete, Capozzella Assunta, Schifano Maria Pia, Tomei Francesco, Nieto Hector Alberto, Marrocco Mariasilvia, Tomei Gianfranco, Caciari Tiziana, Sancini Angela
Department of Anatomy, Histology, Medical-Legal and the Orthopedics, Unit of Occupational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway Department of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway Samfundet Folkhalsan, Helsinki, Finland.
Toxicol Ind Health. 2016 Jun;32(6):987-97. doi: 10.1177/0748233714540225. Epub 2014 Jul 7.
Nickel (Ni) and Ni compounds are widely present in the urban air. The purpose of this study is to estimate exposure of individuals to Ni and the correlation between this exposure and the values of blood counts in outdoor workers. This study focused on a sample of 101 outdoor workers (55 male and 46 female; 65 nonsmokers and 36 smokers), all employed in the municipal police in a large Italian city. The personal levels of exposure to Ni were assessed through (a) environmental monitoring of Ni present in the urban air obtained from individual samples and (b) biological monitoring of urinary and blood Ni. The blood count parameters were obtained from the hemochromocytometric tests. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) were calculated to assess the association between the blood and urinary Ni and the complete blood count. Multiple linear regression models were used to examine the associations between the complete blood count and the independent variables (age, gender, years of work for current tasks, cigarette smoking habit (current and never smoker), values of airborne Ni, and blood and urinary Ni). Multiple linear regression analysis performed on the total group of 101 subjects confirms the association among the red blood cells count, the hematocrit, and the urinary Ni (R(2) = 0.520, p = 0.025 and R(2) = 0.530, p = 0.030). These results should lead to further studies on the effects of Ni in working populations exposed to urban pollutants. The possibility that the associations found in our study may be partially explained by other urban pollutants (such as benzene, toluene, and other heavy metals) not taken into consideration in this study cannot be ruled out.
镍（Ni）及其化合物广泛存在于城市空气中。本研究的目的是评估个体对镍的暴露情况，以及这种暴露与户外工作者血细胞计数之间的相关性。本研究聚焦于101名户外工作者的样本（55名男性和46名女性；65名非吸烟者和36名吸烟者），他们均受雇于意大利一个大城市的市警察局。通过以下方式评估个体对镍的暴露水平：（a）对从个体样本中获取的城市空气中镍的环境监测；（b）对尿液和血液中镍的生物监测。血细胞计数参数通过血细胞计数测试获得。计算皮尔逊相关系数（r）以评估血液和尿液中镍与全血细胞计数之间的关联。使用多元线性回归模型来检验全血细胞计数与自变量（年龄、性别、当前任务的工作年限、吸烟习惯（当前吸烟者和从不吸烟者）、空气中镍的值以及血液和尿液中镍的值）之间的关联。对101名受试者的总体进行的多元线性回归分析证实了红细胞计数、血细胞比容与尿液中镍之间的关联（R² = 0.520，p = 0.025；R² = 0.530，p = 0.030）。这些结果应促使对暴露于城市污染物的工作人群中镍的影响进行进一步研究。本研究中发现的关联可能部分由本研究未考虑的其他城市污染物（如苯、甲苯和其他重金属）所解释，这种可能性不能排除。
