In vivomeasurement of lead in the bones of smelter workers using the four-element ‘clover-leaf’ geometry detector system

Abstract

A total of 497 smelter employees from New Brunswick participated in a bone lead survey conducted by McMaster University in 2008 to examine the efficiency of lead exposure control programmes and a four-element 'clover-leaf' geometry detector system. Nearly 42% of the subjects had participated in both the previous surveys performed in 1994 and 1999. After developing the clover-leaf geometry system in 2006, the reliability of the system based on examining the consistency of four detectors and improving the minimum detection limit (MDL) was tested for the first time in 2008 by measuring lead levels of a large population that was occupationally exposed to lead. The Z test was used to study the distribution of the lead concentration calculated based on K(α) and K(β) lead x-rays, where the results were broadly consistent with a normal distribution criterion, with relatively small means and standard deviations of between 1 and 2. The MDL of the clover-leaf geometry system was improved on average for tibia and calcaneus by a factor of 3.1 compared to the 1999 and 1994 surveys in which a conventional system (one detector) was used. Furthermore, by comparing the results of the three mentioned surveys, the 2008 results were found to represent the highest precision.

The estimation of the rates of lead exchange between body compartments of smelter employees

“…The group of study consisted of the smelter employees from New Brunswick who have participated in longitudinal studies performed in 1994, 1999, and 2008. [8][9][10] For the 211 employees who were common between the three groups, the respective mean (SD, Standard Deviation) of tibia and calcaneus was 27.62 (18.57) and 41.70 (29.26) mg Pb per g bone mineral in 2008; the ones in 1999 were found to be 37.84 (29.68) and 76.07 (49.47), and nally the bone lead values in 1994 were found to be 37.33 (29.04) and 61.25 (54.74) mg Pb per g bone mineral respectively. The mean change in CBLI between the two lead measurements in 2008 À 1999 and 1999 À 1994 were 151.7 and 110.7 mg year per dl respectively.…”

X‐ray fluorescence of archived bone samples: are raised Pb levels a chance finding or an association with Paget's disease?

“…When compared with occupationally exposed subjects, levels from a survey conducted at a lead smelter in New Brunswick in 2008, and reported in 2011, by Behinaein et al on 497 individuals, tibia lead levels ranged from 0 to 100.2 µg Pb/g bone mineral. The Paget's femur levels are thus within those found occupationally.…”

Toxicological profile for lead

“…Bone and Tooth Pb Measurements. The development of noninvasive XRF techniques for measuring Pb concentrations in bone has enabled the exploration of bone Pb as a biomarker of Pb exposure in children and in adults (Behinaein et al 2011;Chettle et al 2003;Hu et al 2007;Ji et al 2014;Nie et al 2011b;Specht et al 2016;Todd et al 2000). Pb in bone is considered a biomarker of cumulative exposure to Pb because Pb accumulates in bone over the lifetime and most of the Pb body burden resides in bone.…”

“…One study reported a correlation of 0.65 between bone Pb measurements made with a portable L-shell device and a K-shell method (Nie et al 2011a). In general, recent advances in K-shell technology have yielded higher sensitivities (approximately 3 µg/g tibia mineral; Behinaein et al 2011) than L-shell technology (approximately 8 µg/g tibia bone mineral; Nie et al 2011a). Precision of K-shell XRF bone Pb measurements have been extensively discussed (Aro et al 2000;Behinaein et al 2014;Todd et al 2000Todd et al , 2001Todd et al , 2002.…”