Korea National Survey for Environmental Pollutants in the Human Body 2008: Heavy metals in the blood or urine of the Korean population

Reference values of cadmium, arsenic and manganese in blood and factors associated with exposure levels among adult population of Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil

“…Level of As found in the latter study of 1125 Brazilians ranged between 0.1 and 3.2 lg L À1 . Our mean As concentration (GM = 4.19 lg L À1 ) is higher than the mean level found in Italian adolescents (GM = 0.82 lg L À1 ) (Pino et al, 2012); similar to that reported for control subjects in a bladder cancer case-control study in Tunisia (AM = 3.31 vs. 4.91 lg L À1 in the present study) As exposure among blood donors of Rio Branco was higher in males, older individuals and smokers, which is in agreement with the literature (Feki-Tounsi et al, 2013a;Khlifi et al, 2014;Lee et al, 2012;Pino et al, 2012). However, differences were not statistically significant.…”

“…Mn levels were also higher compared to other studies. The mean level of Mn in blood donors of Rio Branco (GM = 12.81 lg L À1 ) is higher than the mean level found in adults of the general population of Korea (GM = 10.8 lg L À1 ) (Lee et al, 2012), Canada (GM = 10.8 lg L À1 ) (Clark et al, 2007), Denmark (AM = 9.06 lg L À1 vs. 14.54 lg L À1 ) (Kristiansen et al, 1997) and people from five Brazilian states (range = 6.9-18.4 lg L À1 ) (Nunes et al, 2010). It is noteworthy to mention that Mn concentrations in the state of Pará, North of Brazil, were significantly higher than in people from other states (Nunes et al, 2010).…”

“…For instance, the P95 of Cd was 2.31 lg L À1 in adults living in an industrial area in Tunisia (Khlifi et al, 2014). Mean Cd blood level was 24.10 lg L À1 in Chinese people residing in a polluted area (Wang et al, 2011); 9.81 lg L À1 in adults living in the vicinity of a cement factory in Pakistan (Afridi et al, 2011a); and 1.70 lg L À1 in Korean residents near municipal waste incinerators (Lee et al, 2012).…”

“…Fish and seafood consumption is another potential source of As exposure (Lee et al, 2012), although most of the As in fish is an organic form that is rapidly excreted in urine (ATSDR, 2007). Thus, blood levels of As might not be a good biomarker of fish/seafood consumption since no information was gathered on intake in the last days or even weekly frequency of fish consumption.…”

“…The United States, Europe and countries such as Korea have established biomonitoring programs for several environmental pollutants, including heavy metals (Puklová, 2008;CDC, 2009;Lee et al, 2012). In Brazil, information on body concentrations of metals in large groups of the general population is scarce (Nunes et al, 2010;Kuno et al, 2013).…”