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. 2022 Sep 20:10:999095.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.999095. eCollection 2022.

A multiple and comprehensive approach to assess health risk in amalgam-exposed Chinese workers

Xiao-Ying Ruan  1 , Si-Wei Tan  1 , Lin Zhu  1 , Yan-Peng Shi  1 , Jia-Mian Yu  1 , Mei-Bian Zhang  2 , Tong-Shuai Wang  3 , Hong Fu  1
Affiliations

A multiple and comprehensive approach to assess health risk in amalgam-exposed Chinese workers

Xiao-Ying Ruan et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Fluorescent lamp manufacturing workers have been extensively exposed to mercury (Hg). Our aim was to assess their health risks using several approved occupational health risk assessment methods, and to find out which method was more suitable for identification of occupational health risks. Work locations, and air and urine samples were collected from 530 exposed workers in Zhejiang, China. Based on the calculated exposure doses, health risks and risk ratios (RRs) as health risk indices, were evaluated using: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Australian, Romanian, Singaporean, International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) methods. Among the workers, 86.0% had higher Hg levels than the Chinese occupational exposure limits of 0.02 mg/m3, and 16.7% urine samples were higher than the biological exposure limits of 35.0 μg/g·creatinine. Among workers at the injection, etc. locations, their average RRs, evaluated by the EPA, COSHH and Singaporean methods were 0.97, 0.76, and 0.60, respectively, and were significantly higher than the ICMM (0.39), Australian (0.30) and Romanian (0.29) methods. The RRs from the Singaporean method showed significant correlations with the urinary Hg levels (P < 0.01). In conclusion, the Singaporean method was more appropriate than the others for health risk evaluation because the excessive risks were significantly associated with urinary Hg levels among the workers.

Keywords: amalgam; fluorescent bulb manufacturing; mercury; multiple comprehensive methods analyze; occupational health risk assessment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of mercury concentrations in different work locations.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlation indices between UHg and RRs with different OHRA methods.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlations between UHg and RRs with different OHRA methods in different work locations. * means P < 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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