Biological Monitoring of Urinary Fluoride Among Phosphate Fertiliser Production Industrial Workers

Salavath Jawahar; A Ravinder Nath; Nirmala Babu Rao; Dhananjayan Venugopal; Shridhar Kondhalkar; Rajeev Kumar Yadav; Panjakumar Karunamoorthy; B Ravichandran

doi:10.17485/IJST/v15i45.1601

Article

Biological Monitoring of Urinary Fluoride Among Phosphate Fertiliser Production Industrial Workers

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Indian Journal of Science and Technology

DOI: 10.17485/IJST/v15i45.1601

Year: 2022, Volume: 15, Issue: 45, Pages: 2451-2457

Original Article

Biological Monitoring of Urinary Fluoride Among Phosphate Fertiliser Production Industrial Workers

Salavath Jawahar^1,2*, A Ravinder Nath³, Nirmala Babu Rao⁴, Dhananjayan Venugopal¹, Shridhar Kondhalkar¹, Rajeev Kumar Yadav¹, Panjakumar Karunamoorthy¹, B Ravichandran¹

¹Industrial Hygiene & Toxicology Division, ICMR-Regional Occupational Health Centre (Southern), Kannamangala PO, Devanahalli Taluk, Bangalore, 562110, Karnataka, India ²Department of Environmental Science, University College of Science, Osmania University, 500007, Hyderabad, India
³School of Life Sciences, Central University of Karnataka, Gulbarga, 585367, Karnataka, India
⁴Department of Botany, University College of Science, Osmania University, 500007,Hyderabad, India

*Corresponding Author
Email: [email protected]

Received Date:03 August 2022, Accepted Date:10 October 2022, Published Date:03 December 2022

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Objectives: Fluoride pollution at the workplace environment arises mostly due to anthropogenic activities. The workers working in phosphate fertilizer industry might have chronic exposure to excessive fluoride which can cause adverse health effects. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess urinary fluoride levels in occupationally exposed workers. Methods: In this study, pre and post-shift urinary samples were collected from phosphate fertilizer industry male workers (n=53). Fluoride levels in urine samples were analysed using an Ion Selective Electrode (ISE). Findings: The mean concentration of pre-shift and post-shift urinary fluoride levels were 2.141.35 and 2.422.02 mg/g of urinary creatinine respectively. Workers’ pre-shift mean urine fluoride levels were categorised according to their working departments. Workers from the manufacture plat of Single Super Phosphate (SSP), Granular Single Super Phosphate (GSSP), maintenance, and administration had fluoride levels of 2.871.88, 2.431.01, 2.161.30, and 0.920.601 mg/g of urine creatinine, respectively. Similarly, the post-shift urinary fluoride levels were 3.683.00, 2.641.85, 2.241.78 and 1.140.53 mg/g of urinary creatinine in these departments respectively. One-way analysis of variance shown significant difference in urine fluoride concentrations between pre-shift (ANOVA, df=3, F=4.717; p=0.006) and post-shift samples (ANOVA, df=3, F=2.895; p=0.044). About 22.64 % of subjects in the pre-shift and 3.77% of subjects in the post-shift had exceeded the urinary fluoride limits prescribed by various statutory agencies. Novelty: Based on pre-shift and post-shift work exposure assessments, this study adds new knowledge to scientific research on the fluoride exposure among phosphate fertiliser sector workers. While there is sporadic information on fluoride levels among various other occupational groups, very few reports reported the fluoride levels in fertilizer industryworkers. Outcomes of this study will help to identify the source of fluoride and extent of fluoride exposure so as to suggest the mitigation measure to control fluoride exposure at occupational settings. Keywords: Biological monitoring; Fluoride exposure; Urinary fluoride; Occupational fluoride exposure; Fertilizer industry workers

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Copyright

© 2022 Jawahar et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Published By Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee)