Evaluating Efficiency of Nutrition-based Disease Prevention in Metallurgical IndustryWorkers Based on the Results of Biological Monitoring

NTRODUCTION. IN ACCORDANCE WITH VALID REGULATORY DOCUMENTS, ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS OF OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURES ARE PREVENTED AMONG RUSSIAN WORKERS BY MEANS OF HEALTHY NUTRITION BUT THE IMPORTANCE OF ITS EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IS OFTEN UNDERESTIMATED. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY WAS TO ASSESS THE NEED OF CORRECTING MEASURES FOR NUTRITION-BASED PREVENTION OF OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES BASED ON THE RESULT OF BIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF HEAVY METALS. MATERIALS AND METHODS. WE USED ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY METHODS TO TEST LEAD AND COPPER IN 4,995 BLOOD AND URINE SAMPLES OF NON-FERROUS METALLURGY WORKERS. RESULTS. THE BLOOD LEAD ANALYSIS SHOWED THAT THE MEDIAN BLOOD LEVEL WAS 53.7 ΜG/L WHILE THE LEVEL OF CONCERN (> 100 ΜG/L) WAS DETECTED IN 25.4 % OF WORKERS. URINE LEAD LEVELS EXCEEDED THE BIOLOGICAL MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE VALUE IN 15.6 % OF WORKERS. THE AVERAGE BLOOD COPPER LEVM EL WAS 979.9 ± 4.1 ΜG/L WHILE THE CRITERIA VALUES WERE EXCEEDED IN 0.1-7.6 % OF WORKERS. HIGH LEAD LEVELS WERE PREVALENT AMONG WORKERS OF MAIN OCCUPATIONS BUT HIGH COPPER LEVELS, ON THE OPPOSITE, WERE MORE PREVALENT IN WORKERS OF AUXILIARY OCCUPATIONS. CONCLUSIONS. THE RESULTS MAY INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF WORKERS HEAVILY EXPOSED TO HEAVY METALS, WHICH IS A DIAGNOSTIC CRITERION FOR TOXIC LOAD AND AN INDICATOR OF INEFFICIENT NUTRITION-BASED DISEASE PREVENTION.