Characterization of the Toxicological Impact of Heavy Metals on Human Health in Conjunction with Modern Analytical Methods (original) (raw)

The effect of heavy metals to be found in the environment on the human body

2018

The heavy metals mean serious risk in environmenta l pollution. Some of them are essential for many organisms in a low concentration, but the others sh ould be toxic at low concentrations, too. The heavy metals are contacted through the food chain with living organi sms. Industrial, transport and municipal waste orig in effects of contaminants appear more and more in environmental pollution, and many of which earlier and nowadays g ot a large amount of heavy metals into the environment . Therefore, over the last few decades the trace el ement analytical examination of the various biological an d human samples has become increasingly important. The human biological samples for trace element analysis of reliably detected many cases of occupational di sease, poisoning, environmental hazards, and using the res ults of analyzes of health status can be characteri zed. This paper presents an example for the correlation of th e concentration in human hair and in the environmen t of differen...

Unrecognized Elevations of Toxic Elements in Urine and Blood Highlight the Potential Need for a Broader Approach to Exposure Assessment

Journal of Analytical Toxicology, 2018

Heavy metals testing remains an ongoing challenge for diagnosing acute or chronic exposure to heavy metals. In this study, we determined the positivity rates of single element and panel testing for toxic elements, and evaluated the potential utility of an expanded detection protocol for screening of toxic element exposures. The retrospective analysis included data from urine (n = 19,343) and blood (n = 196,019) specimens tested using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury (blood), and arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury and zinc (urine). Lead industrial monitoring in blood and cadmium exposure in blood and urine were included to represent directed single element ordering. The percent of positive results, defined as results greater than the upper limit of the reference interval was determined. For blood, the highest positivity was observed for lead occupational exposure monitoring (26.2%) whereas for urine, the highest positivity was observed for zinc testing (28.1%). Remarkably, reanalysis using an expanded panel, of 120 blood and 174 urine specimens originally negative identified 42% (50 of 120) of the blood specimens with at least one elevated result and 48% (83 of 174) of the urine specimens with at least one elevated result. Our results indicate that a broad elemental screening panel may help ensure easier identification of elemental exposure and may eliminate the need for additional follow-up sample collections.

Human biomonitoring on heavy metals in Ath: methodological aspects

Archives of Public Health, 2011

The municipality of Ath is characterised by the presence, in its center, of two non-ferrous metal industries whose emissions make local residents concerned for their health. Therefore, authorities of the Walloon Region and the municipality of Ath undertook biomonitoring to assess the impact of those industrial emissions on heavy metal body burden in humans. This paper describes the study design and methodology used to carry out this human biomonitoring. A random sampling was done in the general population, in two areas of Ath: an area centered around the industries and a peripheral area. The target population was children (2.5-11 years) and adults (40-60 years) without occupational exposure. The three-stage sampling procedure consisted of a mixture of both mail and telephone recruitment. Firstly, 3259 eligible people, identified from a population register, were mailed an introductory letter. In a second stage, eligible individuals were contacted by phone to propose them to participate in the study. They were randomly contacted until the required sample size was obtained. In the third stage, a second mail was sent to those who agreed to participate with a questionnaire to be filled out. Finally, biological samples (blood and urine) from 278 persons were collected. The final participation rate of this study was 24%. This sampling procedure, especially designed for the purpose of this biomonitoring study in Ath, allowed us to recruit a sample representative of the population of children and adults of Ath, reaching the expected sample size in a short period of time.

Metals as biomarkers of the environmental human exposure

E3S Web of Conferences, 2013

The 1 st PROBE programme for the assessment of the internal dose of metals of the Italian population closed in 2011. A population sample of 1423 individuals, aged between 18 and 65 years from five regions, are recruited and information on gender, age and lifestyles of subjects is collected by a questionnaire.

Molecular markers of heavy metal toxicity--a new paradigm for health risk assessment

2008

Last decade has witnessed increased interest in studies dealing with molecular markers of health and disease expression of genes. Specific toxicant "signatures" have been detected using genome base technologies such as microarrays. Further toxins have been classified on the basis of these signatures. Knowledge on these signatures has helped in the identification of novel drug candidates. This review discusses the gene expression studies recently made on arsenic, cadmium, mercury, chromium, lead, copper, nickel, manganese, and other essential elements. Toxicogenomics standards and their organizations have also been briefly described. Although this information can not be considered as complete, recent reports from different laboratories on bacteria, fish, laboratory animals and humans have been summarized. It is expected that toxicogenomics data presented in this review will be helpful in planning and excretion of human health risk assessment programs.

Recent Developments in Trace Element Analysis in the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Diseases

Microchemical Journal, 1998

Disorders of essential elements arise from inadequate intake, genetic defects, excessive exposure, or impaired elimination. Severe deficiency is rare, but aspecific symptoms and reduced protection against risk factors have been ascribed to suboptimal intake of trace elements. Inherited disturbances of the metabolism of copper, zinc, and molybdenum determine severe diseases, which may have fatal outcomes. Besides occupational and environmental exposure, metal toxicity has been reported in clinical conditions such as parenteral nutrition and hemodialysis. The prevention, diagnosis, and monitoring of pathological conditions related to trace elements, as well as pharmacokinetic studies of metallodrugs and therapy monitoring, rely mainly on the dosage of metals in appropriate compartments, such as blood, urine, and tissues (hair, nails, biopsies, and postmortem samples). However, appropriate compartments may not always be amenable for sampling, and determination of the total amount of an element may not be informative or may even be misleading if the compartment volume also undergoes changes or the different chemical forms of the element vary in opposite directions. New biochemical tests may become available for the prevention, diagnosis, and monitoring of disorders of trace elements as analytical techniques gain improved detection and resolution power. In particular, interest is focused on the dosage of biologically active elemental species and the application of stable isotopes in tracer studies.

Determination of Heavy Metals in Urine of Patients and Tissue of Corpses by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Chemistry Africa, 2019

This study determined the concentrations of some heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Mn, Cu and Zn) in urine samples of patients with kidney, liver and lung related diseases (age 15-70 years); and tissue samples (kidney, liver and lung) that were pathologically abnormal from corpses (age 21-50 years) during autopsies at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. It also determined the effects of age distribution, gender and life styles on the urine samples of patients with the aforementioned diseases. A total of 35 urine samples of the patients were analyzed out of which 15 had kidney related diseases, 10 had liver related diseases and 10 had lung related diseases. Four urine samples were used as controls. The urine samples were collected before meal and the age, sex, occupation and personal habit of patients were considered when taking samples. The samples were digested using microwave assisted digestion method and analyzed with Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The results showed that the concentrations of Cd (0.052-0.093 µg mL −1), Pb (0.150-0.376 µg mL −1), Mn (0.014-0.278 µg mL −1), Cu (0.738-2.475 µg mL −1) and Zn (0.476-0.975 µg mL −1) in urine samples (male and female) were higher than those of the control samples (Cd: 0.035 µg mL −1 , Pb: 0.253 µg mL −1 , Mn: 0.045 µg mL −1 , Cu: 0.040 µg mL −1 and Zn: 0.716 µg mL −1) and also higher than the standard human urine levels of metals recommended by World Health Organisation. Also, Mn had the highest concentrations of all the metals determined in kidney, liver and lung tissues analysed. The study concluded that the high concentrations of heavy metals obtained confirmed the associated health complications noticed in the patients.

Organ damage by toxic metals is critically determined by the bloodstream

Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 2018

Past poisoning epidemics have revealed that the chronic exposure to exceedingly small daily doses of toxic metal and metalloid species can-over time-severely affect human health. Today, several potentially toxic metals and metalloids have been accurately quantified in the bloodstream of the average population, but the interpretation of these from a public health point of view remains problematic. Conversely, the biomolecular origin for a multitude of grievous human diseases remains unknown. Supported by recent epidemiological evidence, these seemingly unrelated facts suggest that human exposure to the aforementioned pollutants may be linked to the etiology of more adverse health effects than we currently know. Based on the interaction of toxic metal and metalloid species with essential trace elements, plasma and erythrocytes in the bloodstream, we have previously argued that a better understanding of these bioinorganic chemistry processes are destined to provide important new insight into their mechanisms of chronic toxicity. This perspective provides an update on recent advances to better understand these bioinorganic processes and attempts to integrate these findings with the whole organism in order to establish connections with the etiology of human diseases. Based on the recent observation of the arsenite-induced perturbation of the whole-body distribution of selenite in mammals and the mercuration of hemoglobin in erythrocyte cytosol it is argued that bioinorganic processes in the bloodstream critically determine which metal and/or non-metal containing species will impinge on the toxicological target organ(s). Accordingly, the bioinorganic chemistry that unfolds in the bloodstream represents a critical bottleneck in terms of linking the exposure of humans to toxic metal species with the etiology of diseases. Furthermore, a better understanding of the blood-based detoxification of environmentally abundant toxic metal species is of direct practical use to develop palliative treatments to ameliorate the adverse effect that toxic metal species exert on certain human populations.