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Human urine

REVIEW: yes

DATE: 2013 (references up to 2012)

REF: M. Filella, N. Belzile and Y.-W. Chen. Human exposure to antimony. III. Contents in some human excreted biofluids (urine, milk, saliva). CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 43, 162-214 (2013).

NUMBER OF REFERENCES IN REVIEW: 147 (of which 21 related to milk and 8 to saliva)

NUMBER OF CITATIONS (Web of Science™, up to 31 October 2016): 4

PREVIOUS REVIEWS? No

CONCLUSIONS (adapted from the review):

  • A total of 74 studies containing antimony data in human urine were collected. Publication dates range from 1954 to 2011.
  • The lack of adequate CRM seriously hampers the assessment of the accuracy of published antimony concentrations in urine.
  • Antimony concentrations in urine are close, and often below, the detection limit of the analytical techniques applied. This may have the effect of overestimating the antimony concentrations reported.
  • A dependence has been observed between values obtained in urine and the detection limit of the techniques used for their determination, with lower values when using more recent, more sensitive analytical methods. Thus, it is recommended that only state-of-the-art dedicated techniques, with low detection limits, be used to determine antimony content in the urine of nonexposed individuals.
  • On the basis of published values, it is not possible to establish a value for the contents of antimony in the urine of healthy, nonexposed individuals. It is, however, possible to situate, on the basis of more recent results, a concentration ceiling at around 0.1 μg L−1.
  • Values quoted in secondary sources (i.e., books) and values taken as normal by public bodies are based on old values and are therefore too high. They need to be reconsidered in the light of more recent determinations.
  • Following up on antimony concentrations in urine might be useful in assessing direct occupational exposure to the element and, probably, environmental exposure to nearby point sources of antimony (e.g., antimony mines) but its value for assessing diffuse antimony pollution is not clear.

PAPERS PUBLISHED AFTER REVIEW OR MISSED: Makris et al., 2012; Liu, 2013; Yorita Christensen, 2013; Chellini et al., 2015; Feng et al., 2015; Hinwood et al., 2015; Shiue, 2015;Tu and He, 2015; Choe and Gajek, 2016; Fort et al., 2016; Gonzales et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2016; Protano et al., 2016; Roca et al., 2016; Scinicariello and Buser, 2017; Scinicariello et al., 2017; Ye et al., 2018; Wan et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2019

COMMENTS:

Concentration topics