A pilot study determining hair arsenic and lead levels in residents of a community established on a former landfill in Puerto Rico

Direct Ultratrace Detection of Lead in a Single Hair Using Portable Electromagnetic Heating Vaporization-Atmospheric Pressure Glow Discharge-Atomic Emission Spectrometry

In this paper, the first demonstration of direct ultratrace determination of lead in a single human hair by direct current-atmospheric pressure glow discharge-atomic emission spectrometry (DC-APGD-AES) coupled with electromagnetic heating vaporization (EMV) was described. Only the ultramicro mass of a human hair sample (about 0.15 mg, often a single human hair) was required during the analysis, and fast detection was implemented without tedious pretreatment processes, such as grinding and digestion. A limit of detection (LOD) of 30.8 μg kg^-1 (4.8 pg) for Pb was obtained under optimized conditions, which was even equivalent to that of conventional LA-ICP-MS/ETV-ICP-MS/GFAAS. EMV-APGD-AES, meanwhile, can facilitate miniaturization and portability with low power and small size. The accuracy and practicality of the method were verified by the analysis of certified reference materials (CRMs) GBW09101b (human hair) and human hair samples from three volunteers. A simple, efficient, and low-cost method for detecting Pb in human hair has been developed.

Domestic cats as environmental lead sentinels in low-income populations: a One Health pilot study sampling the fur of animals presented to a high-volume spay/neuter clinic

Non-human animals serve as sentinels for numerous issues affecting humans, including exposure to toxic heavy metals like lead. Lead plays a role in perpetuating cycles of poverty in low-income communities due to the inequitable distributions of indoor health risks from lower-quality housing and outdoor health risks from industry and polluters, compounded by inequitable distributions of heath care and education. In this pilot study, we explore the potential for studying lead in low-income populations by partnering with nonprofit veterinary outreach programs. We investigate the lead concentration in fur samples of 85 domestic cats (Felis catus) presented to a high-volume spay/neuter clinic and report a mean of 0.723 μg of lead per gram of fur. This study reveals new information about lead exposure in cats in the USA, including that females had greater lead exposure than males, lead exposure increased with increasing amount of access to the outdoors, and lead exposure increased in cats with decreased body condition. We propose that pet, feral, and free-roaming cats presented to high-volume spay/neuter clinics could serve as a source of data about lead exposure in disadvantaged communities where these clinics already operate. Such a non-invasive surveillance system using inert, unobtrusively obtained samples could be deployed to detect highly exposed cats, prompting to follow up contact to a cat's caretakers to recommend seeking lead testing for themselves, their families, and their neighbors.

Arsenic levels from different land-use settings in Pakistan: Bio-accumulation and estimation of potential human health risk via dust exposure

The present study aims at assessing arsenic (As) levels in outdoor dust and human exposure risks at different land use setting (i.e., rural, industrial, urban) from Punjab, Pakistan. The results showed higher As concentrations (mg/kg) in all the sample types ( i.e., dust, hair and nail) collected from industrial sites (9.78, 2.36, 2.5) followed by urban (7.59, 0.38, 0.88) and rural sites (6.95, 0.52, 1.12), respectively. In the current study, we also carried out human risk assessment via contaminated dust exposure, which suggested that dust ingestion is the major route of As contamination for the associated population, followed by the inhalation and dermal contact, at all studied land use settings. Hazard Index (HI) calculated for non-carcinogenic health risks for adults showed higher values at industrial (0.65) and urban (0.53) sites, which reflected that dust exposure is the major contributing source of human arsenic burden and may pose several adverse health effects. Carcinogenic risk values showed that at industrial areas the risk of carcinogenesis to the associated population is mainly due to As contaminated dust exposure. Hair (60%) and nail samples (70%) collected from industrial land use were found above the WHO threshold limit of 1mg/kg, suggested high risks for human health in the studied area. The results of the present study would be useful for assessing the human health risks due to arsenic contamination via dust exposure in different parts of country.

Metallothionein 1A polymorphisms may influence urine uric acid and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) excretion in chronic lead-exposed workers

Lead is a renal toxin, and susceptibility to lead varies between individuals. Metallothionein (MT) is known for its metal scavenging role. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of blood lead levels, urinary uric acid (UA) and N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosaminidase (NAG) in chronic occupational lead-exposed workers, and to study whether the association was influenced by MT1A gene polymorphisms. In this cross-sectional study, 412 lead-exposed workers participated. Their annual health examination data and renal function markers were collected after the Institutional Review Broad of Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital approved the study and consent letters were obtained. From the blood samples, DNA was extracted and used for real-time PCR typing of 2 MT1A single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): rs11640851 and rs8052394 on exons 2 and 3. Descriptive analysis, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regressions were performed. There was a significant inverted relationship of creatinine-adjusted urine UA concentrations and the time-weighted index of cumulative blood lead levels (TWICL) that may be significantly influenced by the AC genotypes of rs11640851 in exon 2 and rs8052394 in exon 3. After controlling for potential confounding factors, the creatinine-adjusted urine NAG concentrations were shown to be influenced by the GG genotype of rs8052394 in exon 3, and were weakly increased with TWICL. Therefore, we concluded that the variations of MT1A SNPs may influence urine UA and NAG excretion in chronic lead-exposed workers, and urine creatinine-adjusted urine UA as a biomarker of lead toxicity should be considered.