ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2012
Adverse health effects of child labor: high exposure to chromium and oxidative DNA damage in children manufacturing surgical instruments.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Child labour and health: a systematic review.International journal of public health · 2018Pooled it
- Exposure to a mixture of four metals and associations with urinary oxidative stress biomarkers in Uruguayan adolescents.Journal of environmental exposure assessment · 2025Article
- Human exposure to chromite mining pollution, the toxicity mechanism and health impact.Heliyon · 2024Review
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- Genotoxic Biomonitoring in Children Living near the El Fraile Mine Tailings in Northern Guerrero State, Mexico.Toxics · 2022Article
- Work-related injuries among 5 - 17 years-old working children in Egypt: findings from a national child labor survey.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Reproductive Hormones Imbalance, Germ Cell Apoptosis, Abnormal Sperm Morphophenotypes and Ultrastructural Changes in Testis of African Giant Rats (Cricetomys gambianus) Exposed to Sodium Metavanadate Intoxication.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- The Health Impacts of Hazardous Chemical Exposures among Child Labourers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- Emission-related Heavy Metal Associated with Oxidative Stress in Children: Effect of Antioxidant Intake.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Prenatal Exposure to Lead and Chromium is Associated with IL-13 Levels in Umbilical Cord Blood and Severity of Atopic Dermatitis: COCOA Study.Immune network · 2019Article
- Gold and silver nanoparticles in resonance Rayleigh scattering techniques for chemical sensing and biosensing: a review.Mikrochimica acta · 2019Review
- Evaluation of Benzene Exposure and Early Biomarkers of Kidney Damage in Children Exposed to Solvents Due to Precarious Work in Ticul, Yucatán, México.Annals of global health · 2019Article
- Effect of Benzene Exposure on the Urinary Biomarkers of Nucleic Acid Oxidation in Two Cohorts of Gasoline Pump Attendants.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Sustainability of artisanal mining of cobalt in DR Congo.Nature sustainability · 2018Article
- Potential health risk of heavy metals in the leather manufacturing industries in Sialkot, Pakistan.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Environmental exposure and effects on health of children from a tobacco-producing region.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2017Article
- Toxicity and oxidative stress induced by chromium in workers exposed from different occupational settings around the globe: A review.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2016Review
- Oxidative stress and DNA repair and detoxification gene expression in adolescents exposed to heavy metals living in the Milazzo-Valle del Mela area (Sicily, Italy).Redox biology · 2014Article
- Evaluation of effects of melatonin and caffeic acid phenethyl ester on acute potassium dichromate toxicity and genotoxicity in rats.Indian journal of pharmacologyArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA considerable part of the worldwide production of surgical instruments takes place in Sialkot, Pakistan. Many children work in hazardous conditions in this industry.
objectiveWe investigated exposure to metals and possible health effects among children working in surgical instruments manufacturing units compared with schoolchildren from the same city.
methodsIn a cross-sectional study we studied a convenience sample of 104 male children (10-14 years of age) working in surgical instruments manufacturing units and 75 male children of similar age from a school in Sialkot, Pakistan. A respiratory questionnaire was administered, spirometry was performed, and blood pressure was measured. In a spot urine sample, concentrations of metals were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8OHdG, reflecting oxidative DNA damage) by ELISA.
resultsThe working children reported more asthma (10% vs. 0%; p = 0.005) and dry cough at night (36% vs. 20%; p = 0.02) than did the schoolchildren, but there were no significant differences in pulmonary function or blood pressure. The urinary concentration of chromium was 35 times higher in working children [geometric mean, 23.0 µg/L; 25th-75th percentile, 8.38-58.6] than in schoolchildren [0.66 µg/L; 0.38-1.09)], and largely in excess of the occupational Biological Exposure Index for adult workers (25 µg/L). Urinary 8-OHdG concentrations were not significantly higher in working children than in schoolchildren (19.3 vs. 17.6 µg/g creatinine, p = 0.4), but were significantly correlated with urinary nickel (r = 0.41; p < 0.0001) and with a composite index of metal exposure (r = 0.46; p < 0.0001).
conclusionsChildren working in the surgical instruments manufacturing industry had substantial exposure to several metals, especially chromium and nickel, which are established carcinogens. Exposure to nickel was associated with evidence of increased oxidative DNA damage.
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