[Study of possible urban environmental pollution by a steel plant through the biological monitoring of urine and hair in children].
The aim of this study was to evaluate the hypothesis of an increased exposure to metallic elements through the biological monitoring (urine and hair) in a group of children living near an electric steel plant and in a control group. The concentrations were also compared with the reference values of the literature. The study included the measure of porphyrins in urine (total and homologue), by some authors considered as effect indicators of xenobiotics such as heavy metals and some persistent organochlorine compounds (polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin). The comparison between the groups and with the reference values shows that the metallic elements in the hair and urine and urinary porphyrins does not indicates significant differences thus excluding specific health risk. In both groups the values of some metallic elements exceeded the upper limit of reference values. Following a control carried out two months later values returned in reference range probable due to different food intake and individual behavior. As a whole our survey demonstrated that there is no exposure to metallic elements representing a significant risk for this particular groups of general population possibly exposed to environmental pollution.
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Applicata, Sezione di Medicina del Lavoro e Igiene Industriale, Università degli Studi di Brescia. valter.carraro@apss.tn.it
Valter
V
Carraro
Silva
S
Franchini
Giuseppina
G
Pezzarossi
Simona
S
Catalani
Maria Cristina
MC
Ricossa
Cesare
C
Tomasi
Pietro
P
Apostoli
D002648:Child; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000652:urine*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008669:Metallurgy; D013232:Steel; D014504:Urban Health
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D013232:Steel