Analysis of methyl tert-butyl ether in urine of primary school students in Beijing / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the urine methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) level of a primary school students in Changping District, Beijing, and analysis the effect factors, give the advice if the MTBE is eligibility as an exposure biomarker of automobile exhaust.@*Methods@#Using the panel study, randomly selected 20 sixthgrade students (10 male and 10 female) from Zhixing School in Changping district, Beijing, from June 7th to 13th, 2018. All participants completed a questionnaire for collecting demographic and geographic information and daily activities. All participants were given guidance to repeatedly collected urine samples 3 times (800, 1100 and 1600 instant urien) a day for 7 days, totally 420 urine samples were collected. Urine MTBE were measured and the statistic significant of the Urine MTBE at different groups were evaluated.@*Results@#MTBE were detected in all 420 urine samples of primary school students, the geometric mean of creatinine-corrected MTBE exposure level in 800, 1100 and 1600 instant urine were 0.12, 0.12 and 0.12 mg/g creatinine, respectively. Urine MTBE concentration was statistical significant in different daily outdoor activity time, the distance of home address to the main road, and daily use time of air purification equipment in class(P=0.00, 0.04, 0.00).@*Conclusion@#There was a universal MTBE exposure among students in a primary school in Beijing, and the impact factors to exposure level were daily outdoor activity time, distance from home address to the closest main road, and daily use time of air purification equipment in class. This result indicate MTBE may be a valuable candidate for exposure biomarker of automobile exhaust, and more research should be done.