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

描述（由申请人提供）：大量的产业工人经常暴露于有毒重金属，如镉（Cd），铅（Pb）和汞（Hg），已知这些重金属会诱发对人类健康有害的各种疾病。为了监测工人的多种有毒金属暴露，并确保这些暴露低于对各种器官系统造成永久性损伤的阈值，将使用我们的研究小组在太平洋西北国家实验室（PNNL）开发的一种新方法开发一种便携式分析仪，用于实时，现场，非侵入性监测工人的有毒金属暴露。该分析仪将基于内置的镉，铅，汞存在于尿中的高效吸附剂材料，在PNNL创建，之前，他们的伏安定量。尿液被公认为是评估急性和持续暴露于多种有毒金属的最佳非侵入性基质之一。吸附剂材料是自组装官能化和极高表面积二氧化硅的结合，并且被设计为即使在1）复杂的尿基质，2）具有由肾病引起的升高水平的蛋白质的尿，和3）具有由螯合施用引起的升高水平的金属螯合物的尿中也对金属离子具有高度特异性。因此，我们的传感器不需要有毒汞的金属离子预浓缩不同于传统的电化学传感器。样品和试剂的输送将基于可编程的湍流顺序注射，其设计可最大限度地减少蛋白质引起的传感器污染。该分析仪将减少监测工人暴露和临床诊断的时间和成本。它代表了下一代金属离子分析仪，因为它的价格低廉，功耗低，便携式，全自动化，操作简单，优于传统的分析方法，如AAS和ICP-MS。本项目直接响应NIOSH/R21的PA-04-030，用于开发暴露评估的研究工具和方法。便携式分析仪将能够（1）更好地识别处于风险中的工人，并制定适当的控制和干预策略，（2）理解风险-反应关系，以及（3）改进标准制定和风险评估的基线数据，所有这些都被NIOSH的国家职业研究议程（诺拉）委托的暴露评估方法（EAM）小组确定为重要的。一旦成功，便携式分析仪可以很容易地扩展到其他有毒金属离子，如铬，砷，镧系元素，和锕系元素的分析，通过使用其他吸附剂材料的组合，已经创建了专门用于吸附这些分析物。最终，金属离子传感器将与肌酸酐传感器结合，以便可以使用“点”尿而不是24小时尿进行暴露监测。

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.