State Key Laboratory of Trauma and Chemical Poisoning, National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China; Key Laboratory of Chemical Safety and Health, National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regin Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
Environ Res. 2024 Dec 15;263(Pt 2):120121. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.120121. Epub 2024 Oct 10.
With the soaring use of rare earth elements (REEs) worldwidely in high-technology and clean energy industries, there were growing concerns for adverse health effect from the REEs exposure. However, there is a lack of biomonitoring research concerning both urine and blood in population with definite exposure. We performed a biomonitoring study that involved 103 REEs exposed males and 110 males as non-REEs exposed controls. We measured the levels of REEs in environment and urine and blood samples from participants, and explored the exposure-response relationship between REEs in environment and body fluids. The effects of exposure duration and smoking status on the internal exposure level of REEs were also investigated. The results showed environmental REEs level of exposure group was significantly higher than that of control group (range of geometric mean of exposure vs. control: 1.08-4.07 × 10 ng/m vs. <LOD-2.16 × 10 ng/m). Six elements with detection rates higher than 60% in blood or urine samples were lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), gadolinium (Gd). We found the REEs concentrations both in urine and blood of exposure population were significantly higher than controls, median range of the above 6 elements of urine and blood was 0.02-1.06 μmol/mol vs. <LOD-0.01 μmol/mol creatinine and 0.01-0.79 μg/L vs. <LOD-0.38 μg/L. The correlations between both blood and urine level of REEs and environment level showed significant. The correlation coefficients with urine levels are higher than with blood. Biomonitoring results showed good exposure-response relationship in urine REEs, while no positive response in blood samples. Smoking status, drinking status and years of exposure showed little effect on the level of REEs. Our results suggested that both blood and urine can be used to monitor REEs exposure, while urinary REEs is promising for risk assessment in population.
随着高科技和清洁能源行业对稀土元素 (REEs) 的广泛使用，人们越来越担心接触 REEs 会对健康产生不利影响。然而，对于有明确暴露史的人群，尿液和血液的生物监测研究还很缺乏。我们进行了一项生物监测研究，涉及 103 名 REEs 暴露男性和 110 名非 REEs 暴露男性作为对照。我们测量了参与者环境、尿液和血液样本中的 REEs 水平，并探讨了环境和体液中 REEs 暴露与反应之间的关系。还研究了暴露持续时间和吸烟状况对 REEs 内暴露水平的影响。结果显示，暴露组环境 REEs 水平明显高于对照组（暴露组与对照组几何均值范围：1.08-4.07×10ng/m3-<LOD-2.16×10ng/m3）。血液或尿液样本中检测率高于 60%的 6 种元素为镧 (La)、铈 (Ce)、镨 (Pr)、钕 (Nd)、钐 (Sm)、钆 (Gd)。我们发现暴露人群的尿液和血液中 REEs 浓度明显高于对照组，上述 6 种元素尿液和血液的中位数范围分别为 0.02-1.06μmol/mol-<LOD-0.01μmol/mol 肌酐和 0.01-0.79μg/L-<LOD-0.38μg/L。血液和尿液中 REEs 水平与环境水平之间存在显著相关性。与血液相比，尿液水平的相关系数更高。生物监测结果显示尿液 REEs 暴露具有良好的暴露反应关系，而血液样本无阳性反应。吸烟状况、饮酒状况和暴露年限对 REEs 水平影响不大。我们的研究结果表明，血液和尿液均可用于监测 REEs 暴露，而尿液 REEs 对人群风险评估具有较好的应用前景。
