Occupational Exposure in the Home Environment: An Investigation on Chemical Exposure of Outsourced Informal Working Families Involved in Jewelry and Fashion Jewelry Productive Chain

摘要

The city of Limeira presents a relevant productive chain of jewelry and fashion jewelry, including a scenario of outsourcing informal home practices. It is highly complex to understand the potentially toxic elements (PTEs: Ni, Pb, Cd, Sb, Sn, Cu and Zn) exposures of the workers because this productive chain encompasses households. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between blood PTEs levels (BEL) and informal work in the home environment. In addition, breathing zone air PTEs levels (AL) were measured in welders. This study included 52 families (n= 165), divided into exposed group (n=112) and control group (n= 53). Blood (n=165) of families and breathing zone air samples (n=9) of welders were collected and the PTEs concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Three questionnaires were applied to collect sociodemographic information as well as the details of the workplace conditions and materials used. The overall data were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Additionally, a cluster analysis was performed to identify linkage between the data. Finally, multiple logistic regression analysis was carried out in order to gain further insight into a group of observations. We had 9 participants with Cd blood level quantified and the GM was 3.45 μg/L. Cadmium, Ni, and Cu showed AL values up to 10 times higher than occupational guidelines in the air samples analyzed. The results showed a significant difference in the blood Pb levels between exposed and control groups (p<0.05). The PTEs concentrations found in the air raise concern once the families, including children, are in the same exposure scenario. Inadequate work conditions were observed in the houses, revealing the need to implement urgent public actions in order to protect those worker families. This study was funded by FAPESP (Grants: 2016/07457-4;2016/11087-8; 2017/15797-2).