National Institute of Occupational Health, Gydas vei 8, 0363 Oslo, Norway.
Team Analytics and Environment, Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology, University of Münster, Schlossplatz 3, D-48159 Münster, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 11;19(14):8477. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19148477.
Electronic repair workers may be exposed to lead, mercury, cadmium and other elements including rare earth elements used in electronic equipment. In this study, repair work took place in small repair shops where, e.g., televisions, radios, video players, compact discs and computers were repaired. Personal full-shift air samples of particulate matter were collected among 64 electronic repair workers in Kumasi (Ghana) and analysed for 29 elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Results showed that air concentrations of all elements were low. The highest air concentration was measured for iron with a geometric mean concentration and geometric standard deviation of 6.3 ± 0.001 µg/m3. The corresponding concentration of Pb and Hg were 157 ± 3 ng/m3 and 0.2 ± 2.7 ng/m3, respectively. The cerium concentration of 5 ± 2 ng/m3 was the highest among the rare earth elements. Source apportionment with ranked principal component analysis indicated that 63% of the variance could be explained by the repair and soldering of electronic components such as batteries, magnets, displays and printed circuit boards. An association between concentrations of lead in the workroom air and lead in whole blood was found (Pearson’s correlation coefficient r = 0.42, p < 0.001). There was, however, no statistically significant difference between whole blood lead concentrations in the workers and references indicating that lead did not exclusively originate from occupational exposure.
电子维修工人可能会接触到电子设备中使用的铅、汞、镉和其他元素，包括稀土元素。在这项研究中，维修工作在小型维修店进行，例如，在这些店里维修电视、收音机、视频播放器、光盘和电脑。在库马西（加纳）的 64 名电子维修工人中，采集了个人整个轮班的空气颗粒样本，并通过电感耦合等离子体质谱法分析了 29 种元素。结果表明，所有元素的空气浓度都很低。测量到的空气中最高浓度是铁，其几何平均值和几何标准偏差分别为 6.3±0.001µg/m3。相应的 Pb 和 Hg 浓度分别为 157±3ng/m3 和 0.2±2.7ng/m3。5±2ng/m3 的铈浓度是稀土元素中最高的。用排名主成分分析进行的源分配表明，63%的方差可以用电子元件的维修和焊接来解释，例如电池、磁铁、显示器和印刷电路板。研究还发现，工作场所空气中的铅浓度与全血中的铅浓度之间存在关联（皮尔逊相关系数 r = 0.42，p<0.001）。然而，工人和参考人群的全血铅浓度之间没有统计学上的显著差异，这表明铅并非完全来自职业暴露。
