Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Changwon, Korea.
Environmental Health Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Ulsan, Korea.
J Korean Med Sci. 2018 Jan 29;33(5):e33. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2018.33.e33.
Industrial pollution may affect the heavy metal body burden of people living near industrial complexes. We determined the average concentrations of atmospheric heavy metals in areas close to and distant from industrial complexes in Korea, and the body concentrations of these heavy metals in residents living near and distant from these facilities.
The atmospheric data of heavy metals (lead and cadmium) were from the Regional Air Monitoring Network in Ulsan. We recruited 1,148 participants, 872 who lived near an industrial complex ("exposed" group) and 276 who lived distant from industrial complexes ("non-exposed" group), and measured their concentrations of blood lead, urinary cadmium, and urinary total mercury.
The results showed that atmospheric and human concentrations of heavy metals were higher in areas near industrial complexes. In addition, residents living near industrial complexes had higher individual and combined concentrations (cadmium + lead + mercury) of heavy metals.
We conclude that residents living near industrial complexes are exposed to high concentrations of heavy metals, and should be carefully monitored.
工业污染可能会影响居住在工业综合体附近的人们的重金属体内负担。我们确定了韩国靠近和远离工业综合体地区大气重金属的平均浓度，以及居住在这些设施附近和远处的居民体内这些重金属的浓度。
重金属（铅和镉）的大气数据来自蔚山的区域空气监测网络。我们招募了 1148 名参与者，其中 872 名居住在工业综合体附近（“暴露”组），276 名居住在远离工业综合体的地方（“非暴露”组），并测量了他们血液中的铅、尿液中的镉和尿液中的总汞浓度。
结果表明，工业综合体附近地区的大气和人体重金属浓度较高。此外，居住在工业综合体附近的居民体内重金属（镉+铅+汞）的个体和综合浓度较高。
我们的结论是，居住在工业综合体附近的居民暴露于高浓度的重金属，应进行仔细监测。
