title: Multielemental assay of autopsy tissues of smeltery and refinery workers pertinent to possible health effects : A survey.
abstract: A multielemental assay (i.e., of 23 elements) in kidney, liver, and lung tissue of autopsy specimens from deceased workers in a smeltery and refinery in North Sweden, as well as from a control group, is discussed in the light of possible health effects. The following topics have been surveyed: Brief history of the occupational exposure conditions; nuclear and other techniques used as tools in the multielemental assay; accumulation of the various elements in kidney, liver, and lung; estimation of retention times-long retention times were observed for antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lanthanum, lead, or selenium in certain tissues, especially pronounced in the lung tissue; elevated levels of antimony, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and lanthanum in lung tissue of exposed workers-a contribution to a multifactorial cause behind the excess mortality from lung cancer of the smeltery and refinery workers; and the protective effect of selenium on lung cancer of exposed workers.
authors.affiliation: Dag Brune Consulting, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brune
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gerhardsson
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nordberg
authors.forename: P O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Wester