Monitoring human risk and exposure to trinitrotoluene (TNT) using haemoglobin adducts as biomarkers

Abstract

Two studies were carried out in a trinitrotoluene (TNT) plant using TNT haemoglobin (TNT-Hb) adduct as a biomarker to study dose-adduct and adduct-response relationships. In the first study, TNT-Hb adduct levels were determined in 117 TNT-exposed workers in different working sites with different exposure conditions. External exposure was calculated from the inhaled air concentration plus skin contamination. TNT-Hb adduct levels in blood were significantly correlated with their external exposure to TNT. Two methods, HPLC-UV and CI-ELISA, were developed for measuring TNT-Hb adduct: good correlations ( r = 0.77 and 0.86) were found between these 2 methods. In the sevond study, TNT cataract was used as an indicator of health effects. The prevalence of cataract and the degree of lenticular damage increased with the increase of blood TNT-Hb level.