Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, International St. Mary's Hospital, Catholic Kwandong University, Beon-gil, Seo-gu, Incheon, Korea.
Department of Statistics, Dongguk University, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea.
Ann Work Expo Health. 2020 Apr 30;64(4):445-454. doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxaa014.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are well-known carcinogens causing lung and skin cancers in exposed workers. Certain occupations, such as coke production, have been associated with high PAH exposure; however, the number of occupations tested to date remains small. Here, we sought to compare PAH exposure across a wide range of occupations based on levels of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP), the urinary exposure surrogate of PAHs.
We collected urine 1-OHP data from the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS), a nationwide biomonitoring survey. We developed a linear regression model, controlling for sex, age, smoking, and survey cycle, and obtained resulting residuals. Then, we computed the fraction of exceeding the third quartile (Q3) level of residuals for each occupation, which is employed as a relative exposure indicator across occupations.
A total of 15 125 measurements derived from three cycles of KoNEHS were used for analysis. The overall geometric means (GMs) and geometric standard deviation (GSD) of urine 1-OHP levels were 0.16 µg g-1 creatinine and 3.07, respectively. Among the sub-major occupational groups, 'construction and mining related elementary occupations' showed the highest fraction (0.45) of exceeding the Q3 level of residuals. Among the minor occupational groups, 'deliverers' showed a high fraction (0.42) of exceeding the Q3 level of residuals, which indicates rapidly growing occupations to be addressed.
Our results provide ancillary information regarding PAH exposure across occupations, especially for occupations for which PAH exposure has not been well characterized.
多环芳烃（PAHs）是众所周知的致癌物质，会导致接触工人罹患肺癌和皮肤癌。某些职业，如焦炭生产，与高 PAH 暴露有关；然而，迄今为止测试的职业数量仍然很少。在这里，我们试图根据尿液中 1-羟基芘（1-OHP）的水平，即 PAHs 的尿液暴露替代物，比较广泛职业中的 PAH 暴露情况。
我们从韩国国家环境健康调查（KoNEHS）中收集了尿液 1-OHP 数据，这是一项全国性的生物监测调查。我们开发了一个线性回归模型，控制了性别、年龄、吸烟和调查周期，并获得了残差。然后，我们计算了每个职业超过第三四分位数（Q3）水平的残差分数，这是衡量职业间相对暴露的指标。
总共使用了 KoNEHS 三个周期的 15125 个测量值进行分析。尿液 1-OHP 水平的总体几何平均值（GM）和几何标准差（GSD）分别为 0.16µg g-1 肌酐和 3.07。在次级职业群体中，“建筑和采矿相关的基础职业”的残差超过 Q3 水平的分数最高（0.45）。在次要职业群体中，“送货员”的残差超过 Q3 水平的分数较高（0.42），这表明这些职业的 PAH 暴露需要引起关注。
我们的结果提供了有关职业间 PAH 暴露的辅助信息，特别是对于那些 PAH 暴露尚未得到充分描述的职业。
