Assessment of Industrial Antimony Exposure and Immunologic Function for Workers in Taiwan

Chin-Ching Wu and Yi-Chun Chen
Additional contact information
Chin-Ching Wu: Department of Public Health, China Medical University, 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan
Yi-Chun Chen: Department of Health Management, College of Medicine, I-Shou University, 8 Yida Road, Yanchao District, Kaohsiung 824, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-9

Abstract: This study investigated antimony exposure among employees in industries in Taiwan and evaluated whether their immunologic markers were associated with antimony exposure. We recruited 91 male workers and 42 male office administrators from 2 glass manufacturing plants, 1 antimony trioxide manufacturing plants, and 2 engineering plastic manufacturing plants. Air samples were collected at worksites and administrative offices, and each participant provided specimens of urine, blood, and hair to assay antimony levels. We also determined white blood cells, lymphocyte, and monocyte, IgA, IgE, and IgG in blood specimens. The mean antimony concentration in the air measured at worksites was much higher in the antimony trioxide plant (2.51 ± 0.57 mg/m 3 ) than in plastic plants (0.21 ± 0.06 mg/m 3 ) and glass plants (0.14 ± 0.01 mg/m 3 ). Antimony levels in blood, urine, and hair measured for participants were correlated with worksites and were higher in workers than in administrators. The mean serum IgG, IgA, and IgE levels were lower in workers than in administrators ( p < 0.001). Serum IgA and IgE levels in participants were negatively associated with antimony levels in air samples of workplaces, and in blood, urine, and hairs of participants. Serum IgG and IgE of all participants were also negatively associated with antimony levels in their hairs. In conclusion, the antimony exposure is greater for workers employed in the five industrial plants than for administrators. This study suggests serum IgG, IgA, and IgE levels are negatively associated with antimony exposure.

Keywords: antimony; antimony trioxide; biomarker; engineering plastics; glass; immunologic function; IgG; IgA; IgE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/689/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/689/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:689-:d:102625

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().