Assessment of heavy metals among auto workers in metropolitan city: a case study

Kaleem Khan; Shahzada Amani Room; Aziz-Ur-Rahim Bacha; Iqra Nabi; Shabir Ahmad; Muhammad Younas; Zahid Ullah; Akhtar Iqbal; Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei; Mikhlid H Almutairi; Jung-Wei Chang; Kai Hsien Chi

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1277182

Assessment of heavy metals among auto workers in metropolitan city: a case study

Front Public Health. 2023 Nov 7:11:1277182. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1277182. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Kaleem Khan^{1

2}, Shahzada Amani Room¹, Aziz-Ur-Rahim Bacha³, Iqra Nabi³, Shabir Ahmad^{1

2}, Muhammad Younas^{2

4}, Zahid Ullah⁵, Akhtar Iqbal⁶, Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei⁷, Mikhlid H Almutairi⁷, Jung-Wei Chang¹, Kai Hsien Chi¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Basic and Applied Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
³ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Prevention and Control, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China.
⁴ College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China.
⁶ Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In recent decades, heavy metals (HMs) have emerged as a global health concern. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, there is a general lack of awareness regarding the potential health risks associated with HMs pollution among automobile workers. Herein, we investigated the concentration of heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr) among automobile workers who were occupationally exposed in Mingora City, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Three different automobile groups, i.e., battery recyclers, spray painters, and mechanics were studied in detail. A total of 40 blood samples were collected from automobile workers groups while 10 blood samples were collected as control individuals from different locations in the study area. We investigated heavy metals concentration with a standard method using an atomic absorption spectrometer AAS (PerkinElmer Analyst 700, United States). Based on our findings, the battery recycling group displayed the most elevated Pb levels (5.45 ± 2.11 μg/dL), exceeding those of both the spray painters' group (5.12 ± 1.98 μg/dL) and the mechanics' group (3.79 ± 2.21 μg/dL). This can be attributed to their higher exposure to Pb pollution resulting from the deterioration, dismantling, grinding, or crushing of old batteries. In the context of chromium (Cr) exposure, a similar trend was observed among the battery recycling group, as well as the spray painters and mechanics groups. However, in the case of cadmium (Cd), the mechanics' group exhibited the highest level of exposure (4.45 ± 0.65 μg/dL), surpassing the battery recycling group (1.17 ± 0.45 μg/dL) and the spray painters' group (1.35 ± 0.69 μg/dL), which was attributed to their greater exposure to welding fumes and other activities in their workplace. We believe that our findings will encourage regulatory measures to improve the health of automobile workers. However, further work is needed to determine various health-related issues associated with heavy metal exposure among automobile workers.

Keywords: autoworkers; battery recyclers; heavy metals; mechanics; spray painters.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cadmium
Chromium / analysis
Humans
Lead
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Occupational Exposure* / analysis

Substances

Cadmium
Lead
Metals, Heavy
Chromium

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. We extend our appreciation to the Researchers Supporting Project (No. RSP2023R191), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.