Research Center for Health Sciences, Institute of Health, Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Rev Environ Health. 2022 Jun 27;38(3):493-510. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2022-0042. Print 2023 Sep 26.
Hazardous organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, m-xylene, and p-xylene (known as BTEX) found at work and at home can cause adverse health effects of human beings throughout their lives. Biological monitoring, an exposure assessment method, considers all exposed organic and non-organic compounds. Our goal was to perform a systematic review and a statistical analysis (meta-analysis) of peer-reviewed publications to assess urinary concentrations of BTEX biomarkers in both occupationally-exposed population and the general population. Several major electronic databases, including Scopus, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, and Google scholar (grey literature), were searched for biomonitoring studies of BTEX. Overall, 33 studies met the eligible criteria for the systematic review and six met the full inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. For meta-analysis, we included studies in which unmetabolized BTEX compounds were measured in urine samples. Due to insufficient data, studies that measured BTEX metabolites in urine samples and unmetabolized BTEX compounds in blood samples were excluded from the meta-analysis but were analyzed in the qualitative synthesis. Most studies showed increased urinary concentrations of BTEX in exposed individuals (mainly workers) compared to unexposed individuals. The results showed that the highest total BTEX concentrations were recorded in painters and policemen. This study showed that the undoubted associations between lifestyle and environmental factors and urinary levels of BTEX or its metabolites have not yet been confirmed in current biomonitoring studies. This is attributed to the few studies reported in this research area, the lack of homogeneous information, and the disagreement in the published results of the studies.
工作和家庭环境中存在的苯、甲苯、乙苯、邻二甲苯、间二甲苯和对二甲苯等有害有机化合物（简称 BTEX）会对人类的健康造成终生负面影响。生物监测是一种暴露评估方法，它考虑了所有暴露的有机和无机化合物。我们的目标是对同行评审出版物进行系统评价和统计分析（荟萃分析），以评估职业暴露人群和一般人群尿液中 BTEX 生物标志物的浓度。我们在几个主要的电子数据库（包括 Scopus、Embase、Medline、Web of Science 和 Google Scholar（灰色文献））中搜索了 BTEX 的生物监测研究。总的来说，有 33 项研究符合系统评价的合格标准，有 6 项研究完全符合荟萃分析的纳入标准。对于荟萃分析，我们纳入了在尿液样本中测量未代谢 BTEX 化合物的研究。由于数据不足，我们排除了在尿液样本中测量 BTEX 代谢物和在血液样本中测量未代谢 BTEX 化合物的研究，但将其纳入定性综合分析。大多数研究表明，暴露个体（主要是工人）的尿液中 BTEX 浓度高于未暴露个体。结果表明，油漆工和警察的总 BTEX 浓度最高。这项研究表明，目前的生物监测研究尚未证实生活方式和环境因素与 BTEX 或其代谢物的尿液水平之间存在无疑的关联。这归因于该研究领域报告的研究较少，缺乏同质信息以及发表的研究结果存在分歧。
