Human Biomonitoring Reference Values, Exposure Distribution, and Characteristics of Metals in the General Population of Taiwan: Taiwan Environmental Survey for Toxicants (tests), 2013–2016

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Some hazardous metals were classified as human carcinogens and the low-dose exposure is still a concern. However, no information on exposure levels was conducted systemically of multiple metals in Asia using human biomonitoring. We aimed to establish reference values and exposure profiles of emergent metals using the Taiwan Environmental Survey for Toxicants (TESTs) 2013-2016. METHOD: A total of 1,871 Taiwanese (aged 7-97 years old) were recruited and urine samples were collected. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry was used to determine the concentrations of urinary Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As (total), Se, Sr, Cd, In, Tl, and Pb. A questionnaire survey was applied to obtain individual demographic characteristics. RESULTS: We found that the median levels of urinary Cu, Zn, and Pb in males (Cu: 11.53; Zn: 449.61; Pb: 0.87 μg/L) were significantly higher than in females (Cu: 10.00; Zn: 347.06; Pb: 0.76 μg/L,). On the contrary, Co and Cd were significantly lower in male (Co: 0.27; Cd: 0.61 μg/L) than in female (Co: 0.40; Cd: 0.64 μg/L). Only urinary Cd levels in adults (0.69 μg/L) were significantly higher than in minors (0.49 μg/L, p0.001). The median levels of urinary Cd, Pb, and As were significantly higher in suburban (0.68 μg/L), rural (50.29 μg/L), industrial area (0.92 μg/L), and harbor areas (94.12 μg/L), respectively, than the other regions. RV 95 percentiles of urinary metals (ng/mL) for 7-17/≥18-year-old groups were As (346.9/370.0), Cd (1.41/2.21), Co (2.30/1.73), Cr (0.88/0.88), Cu (28.02/22.78), Fe (42.27/42.36), Ga (0.13/0.12), In (0.05/0.04), Mn (3.83/2.91), Ni (8.09/6.17), Pb (8.09/5.75), Se (122.4/101.9), Sr (556.5/451.3), Tl (0.57/0.49), and Zn (1314.6/1058.8). CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the urinary levels of certain metals exposure in the general Taiwanese varied by gender, age, region, and urbanization, and references of emergent metals in Taiwanese were established.