Respirable indium exposures, plasma indium, and respiratory health among indium-tin oxide (ITO) workers

Background Workers manufacturing indium‐tin oxide (ITO) are at risk of elevated indium concentration in blood and indium lung disease, but relationships between respirable indium exposures and biomarkers of exposure and disease are unknown. Methods For 87 (93%) current ITO workers, we determined cor...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of industrial medicine 2016-07, Vol.59 (7), p.522-531
Main Authors: Cummings, Kristin J., Virji, M. Abbas, Park, Ji Young, Stanton, Marcia L., Edwards, Nicole T., Trapnell, Bruce C., Carey, Brenna, Stefaniak, Aleksandr B., Kreiss, Kathleen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Air Pollutants, Occupational - analysis
Biomarkers
Biomarkers - analysis
Biomarkers - blood
cumulative exposure
Environmental Monitoring
Humans
Indium - adverse effects
Indium - blood
indium-tin oxide
KL-6
Lung diseases
Lung Diseases - chemically induced
Lung Diseases - diagnosis
Middle Aged
Occupational Exposure - adverse effects
Occupational Exposure - analysis
Occupations
Plasma
SP-D
Spirometry
Tin Compounds - adverse effects
Tin Compounds - analysis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background Workers manufacturing indium‐tin oxide (ITO) are at risk of elevated indium concentration in blood and indium lung disease, but relationships between respirable indium exposures and biomarkers of exposure and disease are unknown. Methods For 87 (93%) current ITO workers, we determined correlations between respirable and plasma indium and evaluated associations between exposures and health outcomes. Results Current respirable indium exposure ranged from 0.4 to 108 μg/m3 and cumulative respirable indium exposure from 0.4 to 923 μg‐yr/m3. Plasma indium better correlated with cumulative (rs = 0.77) than current exposure (rs = 0.54) overall and with tenure ≥1.9 years. Higher cumulative respirable indium exposures were associated with more dyspnea, lower spirometric parameters, and higher serum biomarkers of lung disease (KL‐6 and SP‐D), with significant effects starting at 22 μg‐yr/m3, reached by 46% of participants. Conclusions Plasma indium concentration reflected cumulative respirable indium exposure, which was associated with clinical, functional, and serum biomarkers of lung disease. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:522–531, 2016. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
ISSN:0271-3586
1097-0274
DOI:10.1002/ajim.22585