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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Human biomonitoring is an important tool in environmental
medicine that is used to assess the level of internal exposure to
environmental pollutants. Firefighters are one of the most exposed
and least studied occupations. During fire suppression, firefighters
are heavily exposed to a wide range of chemicals. Polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants
that are considered as the largest known group of carcinogens
due to their cytotoxic and mutagenic properties. Smoke and ashes
released during a fire are important sources of PAH. Firefighters
can be also exposed to PAH through smoking, via polluted ambient
air, water, soil, and through consumption of food. Metabolites
of PAH (OH-PAHs), such as 1-hydroxynaphthalene (1OHNapt),
1-hydroxyacenaphthene(1OHAce), 1-hydroxypyrene (1OHPy) and
3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene (3OHB[a]P) have been used as biological
markers for measurements of human internal exposure to PAH.
The present work aims to quantify the urinary metabolites of
PAH, namely 1OHNapt, 1OHAce, 1OHPy and 3OHB[a]P in study
population of firefighters. Firemen exposed to fires that occurred
during 2014 season were asked to fill a post-fire questionnaire
and to collect urinary samples. A control study population group
was selected to collect samples of urines during the pre-fires
season (winter). Among all participating firemen only healthy
no-smoking subjects were considered. OH-PAHs were analysed
by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence
detection. Overall, 1OHNapt and 1OHAce were the most abundant
OH-PAHs in firemen urine samples, accounting for approximately
90% of the total OH-PAHs. The urinary OH-PAHs in exposed firefighters
were higher than those of control group. Data collected
with the individual questionnaire were further used to analyse
the concentrations of OH-PAH between (and within) control and
exposed groups of firemen. Additionally, 1OHPy concentrations
in the exposed firefighters will be compared with the available
proposed guidelines.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Oliveira, M.; Slezakova, K.; Fernandes, Adília; Vaz, Josiana A.; Teixeira, J.P.; Delerue-Matos, c; Pereira, M.C.; Morais, S. (2015). Biomonitoring of fírefighters occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons during the 2014 hot season. Toxicology Letters. ISSN 0378-4274. 238. p. s358
Publisher
Elsevier