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Using exposure windows to explore an elusive biomarker: blood manganese

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International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

We sought to understand the time course between exposure to manganese (Mn) and uptake into the blood, to allow a more meaningful interpretation of exposure biomarker data, and to determine the utility of blood as a biomarker of Mn exposure.

Methods

Welder trainees were monitored over the course of a five-quarter training program. Each quarter, trainees gave eight blood samples and had personal air monitoring four times. A mixed model was fit to obtain estimates of airborne exposure by welding type (fixed effect), adjusted for subject (random effect). Considering weekends and days absent as zero exposure, estimated exposures were summed over various exposure windows and related to measured blood manganese (MnB) using a mixed model.

Results

A relationship consistent with zero was found between MnB and modeled 1 or 7 days of exposure. After 30 days of preceding exposure, a 1 mg-days/m3 increase in air Mn is associated with a 0.57 ng/mL increase in MnB (95 % CI −0.04, 1.19). Considering a 90-day exposure window and a cumulative exposure window, a 1 mg-days/m3 increase in air Mn is associated with a 0.26 (95 % CI 0.005, 0.51) and 0.09 (95 % CI 0.006, 0.17) ng/mL increase in MnB, respectively.

Conclusions

From this analysis, MnB may begin to act as a biomarker of Mn exposure over longer time periods, or at higher levels of exposure. This novel study design allowed investigation of how MnB relates to different time windows of exposure, representing the most robust Mn exposure assessment in the biomarker literature.

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Acknowledgments

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01ES017809. Marissa Baker was further supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under the Biostatistics, Epidemiologic, and Bioinformatics Training in Environmental Health, Award Number T32ES015459. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Suite 100, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA

    Marissa G. Baker, Bert Stover, Christopher D. Simpson, Lianne Sheppard & Noah S. Seixas

  2. Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Bert Stover

  3. Department of Family Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Bert Stover

  4. Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Lianne Sheppard

Authors
  1. Marissa G. Baker
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  2. Bert Stover
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  3. Christopher D. Simpson
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  4. Lianne Sheppard
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  5. Noah S. Seixas
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Correspondence to Marissa G. Baker.

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Baker, M.G., Stover, B., Simpson, C.D. et al. Using exposure windows to explore an elusive biomarker: blood manganese. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 89, 679–687 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1105-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1105-3

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