Six-month follow-up study of health markers of nanomaterials among workers handling engineered nanomaterials

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the health hazards and possible exposure surveillance markers of workers exposed to nanoparticles during manufacturing and application in comparison to a group of unexposed workers. For this longitudinal study, we recruited 158 nanomaterial-handling workers and 104 non-exposed workers from 14 manufacturing plants in Taiwan (baseline). Among them, 124 nanomaterial-handling workers and 77 unexposed workers were monitored 6 months later. We investigated pulmonary and cardiovascular disease markers, inflammation and oxidative stress markers, antioxidant enzymes and genotoxicity markers. Antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase) and cardiovascular markers (vascular cell adhesion molecule, paraoxonase) were significantly associated with nanomaterial-handling during the 6-month follow-up period. In addition, the small airway damage marker (Clara cell protein 16) and lung function test parameters were also significantly associated with handling nanomaterials. The study markers and lung function tests are possible markers that could be useful for surveillance of nanomaterial-handling workers.

• Antioxidant enzymes
• cardiovascular disease
• follow-up study
• genotoxicity
• health markers
• lung inflammation
• nanomaterials
• oxidative stress
• pulmonary function

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. C. J. Tsai at National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan and Dr. M. Ellenbecker and Dr. Candace S. J. Tsai at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA, for their assistance in the exposure assessments of nanoparticles in the workplace.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

This study was partly supported by the National Health Research Institutes of Taiwan (grants 98A1-EOSP03-014, 99A1-EOSP03-014, 00A1-EOSP03-014 and 01A1-EOSP03-014) and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Taiwan (grants IOSH98-M323, IOSH99-M323, IOSH100-M323 and IOSH101-M323).

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary 1–3