Portable Analyzer for On-site Monitoring of Worker Exposure to Toxic Metals

描述(申请人提供)：大量产业工人经常接触有毒重金属，如镉(Cd)、铅(Pb)和汞(Hg)，这些已知会引发各种危害人类健康的疾病。为了监测工人的多次有毒金属暴露，并确保这些暴露低于对各种器官系统造成永久性损害的阈值，将使用我们在太平洋西北国家实验室(PNNL)的研究小组开发的一种新方法，开发一种便携式分析仪，用于实时、现场、非侵入性地监测工人的有毒金属暴露。该分析仪将基于PNNL开发的高效吸附材料在伏安定量之前对尿液中存在的镉、铅和汞的内置预浓缩。尿液被普遍认为是评估急性和持续接触多种有毒金属的最佳非侵入性基质之一。这种吸附材料结合了自组装功能化和极高的比表面积，即使在1)复杂的尿液基质、2)肾脏疾病引起的蛋白质水平升高的尿液以及3)由于螯合给药引起的尿液中金属螯合物水平升高的情况下，也被设计为对金属离子具有高度专一性。因此，与传统的电化学传感器不同，我们的传感器不需要有毒汞来预富集金属离子。样品和试剂的输送将基于可编程的顺序注射和湍流-到一个最大限度地减少蛋白质造成的传感器污染的设计上。该分析仪将减少监测工人暴露和临床诊断的时间和成本。它价格低廉，功耗低，携带方便，自动化程度高，操作简单，是下一代金属离子分析仪的代表，优于原子吸收光谱分析和电感耦合等离子体质谱等传统分析方法。该项目直接响应NIOSH/R21关于开发暴露评估研究工具和方法的PA-04-030。便携式分析仪将有助于(1)更好地识别高危工人并制定适当的控制和干预策略，(2)了解暴露-反应关系，以及(3)改善标准制定和风险评估的基线数据，所有这些都已被NIOSH国家职业研究议程(NORA)委托的暴露评估方法(EAM)小组确定为重要。一旦成功，便携式分析仪就可以很容易地扩展到其他有毒金属离子的分析，如铬、砷、镧系元素和吖系元素的分析，方法是使用已经开发的专用于吸附这些分析物的其他吸附材料的组合。最终，金属离子传感器将与肌酐传感器结合在一起，这样就可以用“斑点”尿液而不是24小时尿液进行接触监测。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Large numbers of industrial workers are regularly exposed to toxic heavy metals like cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg), which are known to induce various diseases that are detrimental to human health. In order to monitor workers for multiple toxic metal exposures and to ensure that these exposures are below a threshold for inducing permanent damage to various organ systems, a portable analyzer for real-time, onsite, non-invasive monitoring of workers for toxic metal exposure will be developed using a novel approach developed by our research group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The analyzer will be based on the built-in preconcentration of cadmium, lead, and mercury present in urine by the highly efficient sorbent materials, created at PNNL, prior to their voltammetric quantitation. Urine is universally recognized as one of the best non-invasive matrix to assess both acute and ongoing exposures to a broad range of many toxic metals. The sorbent materials are the marriage of self-assembled functionalization and extremely high surface area silia and are designed to be highly specific for the metal ions even in 1) complex urine matrix, 2) urine with elevated level of proteins resulting from renal diseases, and 3) urine with elevated level of metal-chelates resulting from chelation administration. Thus our sensors do not require toxic mercury for metal ion preconcentration unlike conventional electrochemical sensors. Delivery of samples and reagents will be based on programmable sequential injection with turbulent flow-onto a design that minimizes the sensor fouling caused by proteins. The analyzer will reduce the time and costs of monitoring worker exposure and clinical diagnosis. It represents the next-generation of metal ion analyzer because of its affordability, low power consumption, portability, full automation, and easy operation, which are better than the traditional analytical methods like AAS and ICP-MS. This project directly responds to PA-04-030 of NIOSH/R21 for the development of research tools and approaches for exposure assessment. The portable analyzer will enable (1) better identification of at-risk workers and development of appropriate control and intervention strategies, (2) understanding of exposure-response relationships, and (3) improvement of baseline data for a standard setting and risk assessment, all of which have been identified as important by the Exposure Assessment Methods (EAM) team commissioned by NIOSH's National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). Once successful, the portable analyzer can be easily extended to the analysis of other toxic metal ions such as chromium, arsenic, lanthanides, and actinides by using combination of other sorbent materials that have already been created to be specific for the sorption of such analytes. Ultimately, the sensor for metal ions will be combined with the sensor for creatinine so that the exposure monitoring can be performed with "spot" urine instead of 24-hr urine.