Session Speaker

Aluminium Discovery in Occupational Health
F. Deschamps
France

Aluminium (Al) possible adverse effect should give reason to conduct a surveillance of occupational Al exposure which can be carried out by ambient and biological monitoring. The role of Al in neurology is controversial. Few studies have been conducted in the relationship between occupational exposure to Al and neuropsychiatric symptoms.

A pre-calibrated constant flow Gilian Air Pomp type Gil Rair3 was used for the study. The absorbed dose of metals in exposed workers was evaluated by a biomonitoring program including the determination of blood and urinary Al. The quantitative determination of the Al concentration in plasma and urine was carried out by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-11S) using the standard addition technique for calibration according to the method of Fleischer and Schaller.

The use of the ambient Al concentration for the assessment of Al uptake should be considered critically. Because of the accumulation of Al in particular body compartments on the one hand and the retarded resorption of inhaled Al in the other hand an estimation of the actual body burden seems difficult by this parameter (blood).

For biological monitoring, we recommended the determination of Al in urine due to the higher sensitivity and robustness of this marker.