Internal platinum and palladium exposure of the general population with emphasis on the exposure from automobile exhaust and dental restorative alloys

Biomonitoring of tram drivers exposed to airborne platinum, rhodium and palladium

“…Ranges and GMs for Pd observed for drivers and controls in the present study were slightly lower than those given by Begerow et al (1999) for road-construction workers (range 9.5-133.7 ng/l; GM, 52.2 ng/l), and the corresponding control group of school-leavers (range 13.1-48.3 ng/l; GM, 31.0 ng/l). The lower levels can be explained by the fact that external exposure is more limited in tram drivers than road construction workers, since working activity is performed exclusively inside the public transport vehicle.…”

“…The urinary Pt concentration range in tram drivers (0.22-27.61 ng/g creatinine or, if not normalized to creatinine, 0.35-40.9 ng/l) was wider and shifted to higher values than those found in the relevant control group and those previously reported (Iavicoli et al 2004) in police oYcers occupationally exposed to car traYc in Rome (0.28-13.7 ng/l). The present Pt range was found to show a tendency towards higher concentrations also in comparison with the range reported by Begerow and Dunemann (1999) for the urban population (0.3-2.2 ng/l) and for road workers (0.1-4.4 ng/l), whilst, in the studies conducted by Herr et al (2003) and Becker et al (2003) similar ranges of urinary Pt concentrations were reported in the general population (<0.9-65.5 ng/l and <0.1-185 ng/l, respectively). Furthermore, the Pt median value (1.22 ng/g creatinine) of tram drivers is in the same order of magnitude as other population groups exposed to traYc such as police oYcers (4.51 ng/l), bus drivers (2.8 ng/l) and taxi drivers (1.3 ng/l) (Schierl 2000;Iavicoli et al 2004).…”

“…To the authors' knowledge, few biomonitoring studies on subjects heavily exposed to traYc PGEs have been performed so far (Begerow and Dunemann 1999;Schierl 2000); in Italy, data are available only for traYc police oYcers (Iavicoli et al 2004). The aim of this study was to assess exposure to airborne Pt, Rh and Pd of a group of 64 tram drivers of Rome through the quantiWcation of these elements in the workers' urine by sector Weld inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS).…”

“…All of these lines run through the 'green zone' and most are within the urban 'railway ring'. Exposure to Pt, Rh and Pd may cause acute toxicity or hypersensitivity with respiratory symptoms, urticaria and, less frequently, contact dermatitis (Begerow and Dunemann 1999;Santucci et al 2000;. Knowledge about adverse health eVects due to low-level exposure to these metals is still lacking.…”

“…Knowledge about adverse health eVects due to low-level exposure to these metals is still lacking. PGE determination in human body Xuids is thus of considerable importance for individual exposure assessment which is the basis for the studies on possible health eVects and risk assessment (Begerow and Dunemann 1999).…”