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Project

Human biomonitoring of chemical exposure in the workplace: method development and application to chromates study.

The most used biomarker for the biomonitoring of Cr(VI) exposure is the total amount of Cr in urine. This biomarker is not specific for Cr(VI), since it measures exposure both to trivalent chromium [Cr(III)] and Cr(VI). Therefore, it is important to test the correlation between Cr(VI) exposure and more specific biomarkers in different work tasks. Even if the total amount of Cr in urine will remain the gold standard for the routine biomonitoring of Cr(VI) exposure, it is important to investigate this correlation. The correlations between Cr(VI) levels in air, urine, blood and EBC will provide more insight in the fate and transformation of Cr(VI) to Cr (III) form when entered to the body. More specific biomarkers include Cr in red blood cells (RBC) and Cr(VI) in exhaled breath condensates (EBC). Cr levels in RBC is a specific biomarker for Cr(VI) exposure since only Cr(VI) is able to pass though the red cell membrane. Cr(VI) in EBC is another specific biomarker for exposure to Cr(VI). This new biomarker can give specific information on the Cr(VI) levels in the main target tissue i.e. in lungs. Cr(VI) and Cr(III) can be detected simultaneously from the EBC samples. Furthermore, EBC sampling is less invasive than sampling blood.

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  1 Oct 2022
Keywords:Hexavalent chromium, Human biomonitoring
Disciplines:Public health care
Project type:PhD project