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NDT Advance Access originally published online on October 26, 2007
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2008 23(1):249-255; doi:10.1093/ndt/gfm461
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© The Author [2007]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org


Urinary uranium and kidney function parameters in professional assistance workers in the Epidemiological Study Air Disaster in Amsterdam (ESADA)

Joost A. Bijlsma1,2, Pauline Slottje2,3, Anja C. Huizink2,3,4, Jos W. R. Twisk2,5, Gijsbert B. van der Voet6, Frederik A. de Wolff6, Frank Vanhaecke7, Luc Moens7 and Tjabe Smid2,3,8

1Dianet Dialysis Centra, 2EMGO Institute, VU University Medical Center (VUmc), 3Department of Public and Occupational Health, VUmc, Amsterdam, 4Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, 5Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VUmc, Amsterdam, 6Toxicology Laboratory, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, 7Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium and 8KLM Health Services, Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence and offprint requests to: Dr J. A. Bijlsma, Dianet Dialysis Centra Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 7, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: j.bijlsma{at}dianet.nl



  Abstract

Background. The Epidemiological Study Air Disaster in Amsterdam (ESADA) aimed to assess long-term health effects in professional assistance workers involved in the 1992 air disaster in Amsterdam. As part of ESADA indications of nephrotoxicity due to exposure to uranium from the balance weights of the crashed aircraft were assessed.

Methods. Data of a historically defined cohort of 2499 (exposed and non-exposed) firefighters, police officers and hangar workers were collected 8.5 years after the disaster. Urinary uranium concentrations were determined by sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Urine albumin–creatinine ratio and fractional excretion of β2-microglobulin were calculated from a single-spot urine specimen and simultaneous blood sample. Exposed assistance workers were compared with their non-exposed colleagues, and associations between uranium and kidney function parameters were explored.

Results. Median uranium concentrations were around 2 ng/g creatinine. Median values of albumin–creatinine ratio and fractional excretion of β2-microglobulin were well below the level for microalbuminuria and for tubular damage, respectively. No statistically significant differences between exposed and non-exposed workers were found in uranium concentrations and kidney function parameters, although exposed hangar workers had lower uranium concentrations. No statistically significant associations were found between uranium concentrations and kidney function parameters in the total cohort.

Conclusions. Occupational exposure to the air disaster in Amsterdam was neither significantly associated with higher uranium concentrations, nor with disturbed kidney function parameters. In this large cohort of professional assistance workers, urinary uranium concentrations were in the low range compared with previously published reference populations. No indications of nephrotoxicity were found at urinary uranium concentrations around 2 ng/g creatinine.

Keywords: albuminuria; β2-microglobulin; ICP-mass spectrometry; nephrotoxic; renal tubular function; uranium

Received for publication: 30. 9.06
Accepted in revised form: 13. 6.07


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