Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene-glucuronide as a biomarker of exposure to traffic exhausts

This research was motivated by the concerns of the health effects of exposure to urban ambient air pollution, in particular to traffic exhausts, and the controversies concerning the strength of the evidence. A central problem in the epidemiologic studies of health effects was the lack of individual-level exposure information. The overall goal of the project was to assess whether urinary 1-hydroxyprene-glucuronide (1-OHP-gluc) can be used as a biomarker of recent exposure to traffic exhausts.; We assessed occupational exposure to PM_2.5 among highway toll station workers in Taipei. The study population included 47 subjects working in three shifts. We used personal monitors to assess the integrated 8-hour PM_2.5 concentrations in the breathing zone over a 10 day period. We assessed the relation between vehicle-specific traffic density and PM _2.5 concentrations. We constructed a microenvironment-time-concentration matrix and then applied a combination of direct (measured) and indirect (estimated) approaches for assessment of cumulative exposure to PM_2.5. The mean cumulative exposure for the 10-day period ranged from 4900 μg m −3 h to 13407 μg m−3 h with a mean of 8019 μg m−3 h, (SD = 2375). The concentrations based on indirect assessment correlated strongly with the concentrations determined by the direct assessment (R2 = 0.61, P < 0.001). This study shows that personal exposure can be reliably estimated in this occupation using indirect approaches.; A prerequisite for using pyrene metabolites as exposure indicators is understanding the variation of pyrene concentration in particles of different size and from different sources. Samples were analyzed for 22 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Trucks and busses constitute a stronger source of pyrene exposure by producing both higher concentrations of particles, and by producing fine particles with higher concentrations of pyrene.; To evaluate the potential of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene-glucuronide as a biomarker of exposure to traffic exhausts, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 47 highway toll station workers and 27 office workers in Taipei, Taiwan. We assessed the relations between traffic density and 1-OHP-gluc concentrations in linear regression models. The mean concentration of urinary 1-OHP-gluc was 0.117 μmol/mol creatinine among the exposed subjects and 0.073 μmol/mol creatinine in the reference group (difference 0.044, 95% CI 0.015–0.072). Our results indicated that exposure to traffic exhausts increases the urinary concentration of 1-OHP-gluc with a dose-response pattern. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...