Direct Quantification of Rare Earth Elements Concentrations in Urine of Workers Manufacturing Cerium, Lanthanum Oxide Ultrafine and Nanoparticles by a Developed and Validated ICP-MS

Yan Li, Hua Yu, Siqian Zheng, Yang Miao, Shi Yin, Peng Li and Ying Bian
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Yan Li: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Hua Yu: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Siqian Zheng: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Yang Miao: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Shi Yin: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Peng Li: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Ying Bian: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás Pereira Taipa, Macau 999078, China

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-10

Abstract: Rare earth elements (REEs) have undergone a steady spread in several industrial, agriculture and medical applications. With the aim of exploring a sensitive and reliable indicator of estimating exposure level to REEs, a simple, accurate and specific ICP-MS method for simultaneous direct quantification of 15 REEs ( 89 Y, 139 La, 140 Ce, 141 Pr, 146 Nd, 147 Sm, 153 Eu, 157 Gd, 159 Tb, 163 Dy, 165 Ho, 166 Er, 169 Tm, 172 Yb and 175 Lu) in human urine has been developed and validated. The method showed good linearity for all REEs in human urine in the concentrations ranging from 0.001–1.000 ?g?L ?1 with r 2 > 0.997. The limits of detection and quantification for this method were in the range of 0.009–0.010 ?g?L ?1 and 0.029–0.037 ?g?L ?1 , the recoveries on spiked samples of the 15 REEs ranged from 93.3% to 103.0% and the relative percentage differences were less than 6.2% in duplicate samples, and the intra- and inter-day variations of the analysis were less than 1.28% and less than 0.85% for all REEs, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to the determination of 15 REEs in 31 urine samples obtained from the control subjects and the workers engaged in work with manufacturing of ultrafine and nanoparticles containing cerium and lanthanum oxide. The results suggested that only the urinary levels of La (1.234 ± 0.626 ?g?L ?1 ), Ce (1.492 ± 0.995 ?g?L ?1 ), Nd (0.014 ± 0.009 ?g?L ?1 ) and Gd (0.023 ± 0.010 ?g?L ?1 ) among the exposed workers were significantly higher ( p < 0.05) than the levels measured in the control subjects. From these, La and Ce were the primary components, and accounted for 88% of the total REEs. Lanthanum comprised 27% of the total REEs while Ce made up the majority of REE content at 61%. The remaining elements only made up 1% each, with the exception of Dy which was not detected. Comparison with the previously published data, the levels of urinary La and Ce in workers and the control subjects show a higher trend than previous reports.

Keywords: rare earth elements (REEs); cerium and lanthanum oxide nanoparticles; inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); urine; human bio-monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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