Table 3.

Metal concentrations in urine samples (µg/l and µg/g creatinine (as µg/g)) of recycling workers and the control group of five e-waste recycling sheltered workshops in Germany

	Recycling workers					Controls
Metal*	n	Range	Median	GM	95th percentile	n	Range	Median	GM	95th percentile	p value
Aluminium (µg/g)	51	0.85–39.3	3.40	3.18	9.8	20	1.0–15.7	2.90	2.89	15.3	0.6
Aluminium (µg/l)	51	1.5–21.2	4.10	3.79	12.3	20	1.5–8.7	3.60	3.28	8.7	0.4
Antimony (µg/l)	49	0.15–2.4	0.15	0.26	2.0	19	0.15–2.2	0.50	0.36	n.a	0.2
Arsenic (µg/l)	50	1.0–8.6	3.0	1.96	7.0	20	1.0–10.0	3.00	2.05	9.7	0.8
Beryllium (µg/l)	51	0.02–0.05	0.02	0.02	0.05	20	0.02–0.05	0.02	0.02	0.05	n.a
Cadmium (µg/l)	51	0.08–1.8	0.08	0.16	1.3	20	0.08–1.3	0.08	0.13	1.3	0.5
Chromium (µg/g)	51	0.02–0.64	0.08	0.09	0.5	20	0.02–0.7	0.07	0.09	0.6	0.9
Chromium (µg/l)	51	0.08–1.1	0.08	0.10	0.25	20	0.08–0.25	0.08	0.10	0.25	0.9
Cobalt (µg/l)	51	0.15–1.6	0.5	0.32	1.1	20	0.15–0.5	0.50	0.29	0.5	0.7
Nickel (µg/l)	51	0.15–3.8	0.5	0.74	2.9	20	0.15–3.0	0.50	0.53	2.9	0.1
Mercury (µg/g)	51	0.05–4.0	0.30	0.32	2.0	20	0.04–2.7	0.20	0.18	2.6	0.06
Mercury (µg/l)	51	0.1–4.6	0.30	0.38	2.7	20	0.1–3.7	0.10	0.21	3.6	0.03

Creatinine-adjusted concentrations are only shown for Al, Cr and Hg if required for comparison with creatinine-adjusted biologic limit values (see Table 6)

*When calculating the statistical location parameters median and geometric mean (GM), samples below the limit of detection (LOD) were assigned a numerical value of 50% of the LOD. Similarly, samples with analyte concentrations below the limit of quantification (LOQ) were allocated a value of 50% of the LOQ. Details on LOD and LOQ in Table 1