Biological assessment of exposure to antimony and lead in the glass-producing industry.

The oxide of trivalent antimony is used in the glass-producing industry as a refining agent and as a glass colouring. The batch contains up to 2% Sb2O3, a substance which has shown carcinogenic properties in animal experiments. The internal levels of antimony and lead in blood (SbB and PbB) as well as the excretion with the urine (SbU and PbU) were determined by hydrid and electrothermal atomic absorption (HY-AAS and ET-AAS), respectively. In addition, measurements of airborne Sb2O3-concentrations were performed. The 109 volunteers were employed in four different fields: melting area, batch bunker, glass-washing area, and transport/maintenance. Differences between the concentrations of antimony and lead in blood and urine with respect to the fields of activity were evaluated statistically. The highest values of airborne Sb2O3, with up to 840 micrograms/m3 (TWA), were detected in the batch bunker. Correspondingly, significantly enhanced SbU-values from 1.5 to 15.7 micrograms/l (median: 5.0 micrograms/l) were found in specimens collected from the batch mixers. In the same group, the lead excretion (PbU) with values from 9 to 110 micrograms/l (median: 43 micrograms/l) was also found to be the highest. Due to the fast renal excretion of antimony, the determination of SbU is useful for biological monitoring.