Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene levels among office workers living in industrial areas

We examined exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) among non-smoking office workers in 2 countries living in the vicinity of a coke-oven factory by measuring their levels of urinary 1-OHP, a known metabolite of PAHs. Subjects included 10 non-smoking office workers in Kitakyushu city (Japan) and 20 workers in Thai Nguyen city (Vietnam). Measurement was optimized by using the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method developed by Jongeneelen et al. This method required only a small amount of urine and had a short incubation time, and its detection limit was very low (0.00448 ng/ml), which was practical and highly sensitive.The median urinary 1-OHP concentration in the Vietnamese subjects (0.417 ng/mg creatinine) was six times as high as that in the Japanese subjects (0.069 ng/mg creatinine) (P < 0.001). However, both concentrations were significantly below the guideline level, below which there is no genotoxic effect, implying a low probability of any adverse health effects.Our measurements from both countries showed higher urinary 1-OHP concentrations than in previous studies from locations without factories, indicating that ambient air pollution from industrial emissions is an important source of PAH exposure. Finally, the urinary 1-OHP concentrations did not correlate with gender or lifestyle factors.