Environmental and biological monitoring of workers exposed to inorganic lead.

A total of 20 workers who were exposed to inorganic lead in two local firms (M and N) were studied. Lead concentrations in the air (PbA) at firm M exceeded the threshold limit value (TLV) of 0.150 mg/m3 established by Spanish and EC legislation, while atmospheric lead at firm N exceeded the action level of 0.075 mg/m3. In the same population, biological exposure indices (BEI) were also determined; these included lead in whole blood (PbB), erythrocyte activity of aminolevulinic acid (ALA-D), urinary excretion of aminolevulinic acid (ALA-U) and zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP). The relationship between the exposure parameters (PbA, PbB) and the biological activity indices (ALA-D, ALA-U, ZPP) were analysed statistically in order to obtain levels of significance, coefficients of correlation and regression equations. The high coefficients of correlation found confirm the usefulness of BEI in evaluating exposure to lead fumes and lead dust.

Mineralization procedure for determination of copper in aerosols using photometric method based on copper-BPKQH complex.

A mineralization procedure is proposed for copper aerosols in which samples are mineralized by wet-ashing with HNO3 + HCIO4 mixture. Copper content is determined by a photometric method based on formation of a complex between copper and benzyl 2-pyridyl ketone 2-quinolylhydrazone (BPKQH). The influence of pH, ethanol content, and reagent concentration is studied. Copper determination at pH = 7.3, in the range 0.05 to 3 ppm is proposed. Mineralization with HNO3 is carried out in different conditions of evaporation (with or without dryness) and manipulation. Analysis of variance by the (ANOVA) single factor method shows that digestion conditions significantly increase the variability of results. Repeatability assays suggest that nitric acid alone gives low precision. Recovery assays reveal that the HNO3 digestion process causes copper loss by volatilization. Mineralization with HNO3 + HCIO4 is optimized on the basis of the accuracy and precision obtained. The ANOVA method suggests that mineralization conditions significantly increase total variability of results and also that results of the photometric method are not significantly different from those of the AAS method. The optimum mineralization procedure gave an RSD of 0.63% and a copper recovery of 98.4%. The combined digestion and quantification method was applied to determination of copper in aerosol samples obtained during leaf spraying operations of olive trees in the field.

Fluorimetric and absorptiometric determination of dissociation constants and chromogenic reactions of benzyl 2-pyridyl ketone 2-quinolylhydrazone.

The dissociation constants in the ground state of benzyl 2-pyridyl ketone 2-quinolylhydrazone (BPKQH) have been determined fluorimetrically and spectrophotometrically in aqueous ethanol medium. The pK(a) values of this compound in the excited state have also been established. The analytical properties of the reagent and its chromogenic reactions with some metal ions were studied.

Spectrophotometric and second-derivative spectrophotometric determination of mercury in organomercurials by means of benzyl 2-pyridyl ketone 2-quinolylhydrazone.

Mercury(II) reacts with benzyl 2-pyridylketone 2-quinolylhydrazone (BPKQH) in the pH range 9.0-10.4, to form a stable 1:2 (metal:ligand) complex which has a sharp absorption maximum at 475 nm and molar absorptivity 5.01 x 10(4) 1.mole(-1).cm(-1). It is proposed for use in spectrophotometric determination of mercury at microg/ml levels and analysis for organomercurials. The sensitivity of the method can be increased significantly by employing derivative spectrophotometry, making mercury determination at ng ml levels feasible.