Scientific rationale for the indicators of biological urine monitoring in adolescents in the city of Kazan: a pilot study.

AIMS: study and analysis of concentrations of priority chemical pollutants in the urine of adolescents aged 14-17 in 3 zones of Kazan city with the aim of determining reference values for this age group.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The concentration of elements in urine was measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in 276 adolescents.

RESULTS: We have determined the upper 95 percentiles and their confidence intervals (RV95), which establish the upper limit of the current background exposure to adolescents for 12 biomarkers, interpreted as "conditional" reference values for this age group. The following reference values for adolescents in Kazan city were calculated: Al - 12.80 µg/L, Cr - 1.02 µg/L, Mn - 3.53 µg/L, Hg - 0.65 µg/L, Cu - 110.91 µg/L, Ni - 8.72 µg/L. For adolescents, the highest level of exceedance over background values is observed in zones 1 and 2: Al exceeds by 1.4 times, Cr by 1.3 times in zone 1, Mn by 1.5 times, Hg by 1.3 times, Cu by 1.14 times in zone 2.

CONCLUSIONS: Research in the field of biomonitoring in Kazan made it possible to establish the levels of exposure to toxic elements among the studied population and provide means for comparing exposure for further research by population groups by age, gender, ethnicity. Biomonitoring results can also be used to determine research priorities, to measure exposure trends over time, and to verify effectiveness of individual measures to combat pollution and other measures in the field of the environment and public health. The article presents modern technologies for assessing exposure to chemical pollutants using methods of human biomonitoring (HBM), as well as demonstrates its advantages.