Table 1.
Urinary metal levels in all study subjects and in subjects stratified by job titles. Median (5th-95th) is shown for each metal. The results of the statistical comparison among job title is also reported.
| Metal | All Workers n = 89 | Workers Stratified by Job Titles | P a | p b | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RM-CF n = 33 | SSW n = 29 | MAN n = 12 | GALV n = 7 | QC n = 4 | ADM n = 4 | ||||
| Median (5th–95th) | |||||||||
| V (µg/L) | 0.85 (0.05–2.40) | 1.20 (0.6–2.87) | 0.67 (0.21–2.78) | 0.58 (0.03–1.97) | 0.10 (0.07–2.27) | 1.33 (0.05–1.49) | 0.61 (0.05–1.78) | 0.044 | |
| Cr (µg/L) | 0.75 (0.18–5.51) | 0.84 (0.16–5.51) | 0.57 (0.18–3.22) | 0.50 (0.07–1.82) | 1.00 (0.06–1.76) | 2.30 (0.18–7.01) | 0.84 (0.25–1.95) | 0.198 | |
| Mn (µg/L) | 0.6 (0.1–4.1) | 0.6 (0.1–2.8) | 0.5 (0.1–3.3) | 0.5 (0.2–5.0) | 1.1 (0.2–1.7) | 1.6 (0.1–4.1) | 2.4 (0.3–10.3) | 0.301 | |
| Co (µg/L) | 0.4 (0.1–1.9) | 0.7 (0.2–4.2) | 0.2 (0.0–0.9) | 0.5 (0.1–1.2) | 0.6 (0.0–1.1) | 0.7 (0.2–2.2) | 0.7 (0.3–32.0) | 0.001 | SSW vs. MAN = 0.002 SSW vs. ADM = 0.010 |
| Ni (µg/L) | 2.4 (0.5–6.3) | 3.0 (0.7–6.1) | 2.1 (0.6–8.5) | 2.0 (0.5–5.4) | 1.5 (0.3–3.2) | 3.1 (0.8–6.2) | 3.3 (1.4–7.5) | 0.077 | |
| Cu (µg/L) | 25 (5–54) | 29 (10–50) | 11 (5–47) | 23 (4–62) | 25 (2–37) | 36 (7–51) | 41 (16–73) | 0.007 | SSW vs. RM-CF = 0.010 |
| Zn (µg/L) | 895 (137–3191) | 1054 (272–3185) | 390 (74–1270) | 1153 (260–3986) | 1533 (24–2750) | 765 (302–3618) | 3848 (862–7179) | <0.001 | SSW vs. MAN = 0.060 SSW vs. ADM = 0.002 SSW vs. RM-CF = 0.003 |
| total As (µg/L) | 29 (3–156) | 26 (4–1053) | 30 (2–192) | 51 (9–155) | 48 (2–106) | 27 (9–139) | 41 (13–108) | 0.028 | SSW vs. MAN = 0.026 |
| Cd (µg/L) | 1.43 (0.10–4.57) | 1.83 (0.59–6.39) | 0.50 (<0.03–2.60) | 1.85 (0.34–2.80) | 1.88 (0.20–2.78) | 2.15 (0.55–5.08) | 3.23 (1.45–5.83) | <0.001 | SSW vs. MAN = 0.006 SSW vs. RM-CF < 0.001 SSW vs. MAN = 0.006 |
| Ba (µg/L) | 3.5 (0.3–17.0) | 5.4(1.6–17.0) | 1.6 (0.2–6.5) | 5.7 (1.0–16.7) | 3.5 (0.2–31.7) | 6.3 (2.1–10.3) | 4.1 (2.0–13.6) | <0.001 | SSW vs. MAN = 0.009 SSW vs. RM-CF < 0.001 |
| Tl (µg/L) | 0.4 (0.04–1.1) | 0.5 (0.1–1.5) | 0.1 (0.0–0.4) | 0.6 (0.2–0.9) | 0.5 (0.1–1.0) | 0.7 (0.1–1.0) | 0.6 (0.4–1.2) | <0.001 | SSW vs. MAN < 0.001 SSW vs. GALV = 0.022 SSW vs. RM-CF < 0.001 SSW vs. ADM = 0.004 SSW vs. QC = 0.053 |
| Pb (µg/L) | 5.0 (0.8–19.0) | 5.4 (2.0–19.1) | 2.1 (0.4–11.0) | 9.3 (3.0–19.0) | 7.4 (0.6–25.6) | 6.8 (2.9–12.5) | 8.2 (50–29.2) | <0.001 | SSW vs. MAN < 0.001 SSW vs. RM-CF < 0.001 SSW vs. ADM = 0.007 |
n = number of samples; a = p values represent significance of ANOVA for comparison among job titles; b = p values represent significance of ANOVA post hoc multiple comparison with Bonferroni correction (only p values ≤ 0.1 are shown).