Urinary 1-Hydroxypyrene-Glucuronide as a Biomarker of Exposure to Various Vehicle Exhausts among Highway Toll-Station Workers in Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract

In this cross-sectional study, the authors evaluated urinary 1-hydroxypyrene-glucuronide (1-OHP-gluc) as a potential biomarker of exposure to various traffic exhausts. Subjects were 47 female highway toll-station workers and 27 female office workers in training for toll-station employment in Taipei, Taiwan. The mean concentration of urinary 1-OHP-gluc was 0.117 μmol/mol creatinine in the exposed group and 0.073 μmol/mol creatinine in the reference group (difference in mean concentrations: 0.044 μmol/mol creatinine [95% confidence interval [Cl]: 0.015, 0.072). In the lanes where tolls were collected from passenger cars, there was a significant relationship between cumulative traffic and 1-OHP-gluc concentration (i.e., average increase of 0.015 μmol/mol creatinine [95% Cl: 0.003, 0.027] per 1,000 vehicles). The average increase for truck/bus lanes was similar to that identified for the car lanes (i.e., average increase of 0.011 μmol/mol creatinine [95% Cl: -0.024, 0.045] per 1,000 vehicles). The authors determined that exposure to various traffic exhausts increased the urinary concentration of 1-OHP-gluc in a dose-response pattern, which suggests that this chemical may be a useful biomarker for exposure to vehicle exhausts.

Keywords:

• air pollution
• biomarkers of exposure
• exposure assessment
• occupational exposure
• 1-hydroxypyrene-glucuronide
• polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons