Determination of indium in the blood and urine of workers exposed to indium

Objective To establish a determination method for indium in blood and urine.

Methods Blood and urine were diluted with the solution 0.1% HNO₃ + 0.02% Trion X-100 and detected by ICP-MS. The working curve method was applied for the quantitative determination. The indium in the blood and urine of 82 workers exposed to indium in a LCD manufacturing enterprise was detected with this method.

Results The linear relationship in the selected range was good and the related coefficient was greater than 0.999. The detection of limit for the blood and urine were 0.014 5 μg/L and 0.005 1 μg/L, respectively. The minimum detectable analytical concentrations were 0.145 μg/L in blood and 0.051 μg/L in urine. The recovery rate for blood and urine was 98.3%-103.2% and 95.2-100.5%, respectively. The relative standard deviation in batch for blood and urine were 1.11%-2.05% and 1.02% -1.99%, and the relative standard deviation between batch for blood and urine were 2.08%-3.99% and 1.14%-1.82%, respectively. Indium was not detected in the urine of those workers exposed to indium and the concentration of indium in the blood was < 0.145-1.730 μg/L among them.

Conclusion This methodology has the advantages of low detect limit, high sensitivity and good precision. It can be used in biological monitoring of workers exposed to indium.