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The aim of the study was to determine the concentration of hexavalent and trivalent chromium, nickel, manganese, and iron in welding fumes (WFs) and to evaluate the significant association between the concentration of metals in the biological material of welders. The studies were conducted in welders (n = 67) and controls (n = 52). Stainless steel WFs were continuously collected in the workers' breathing zone during a shift. The serum and urine concentrations of Cr and Ni were determined by ICP-MS. The content of Mn in the whole blood was determined using ET-AAS. The content of Cr in the erythrocytes was determined using ICP-MS. The Cr concentration in the welders' urine positively correlated with a work environment concentration of Cr (R = 0.59, p < 0.0001), Cr(VI) (R = 0.58, p < 0.0001), and Cr(III) (R = 0.64, p < 0.0001) in the inhalable fraction. The Ni concentration in the welders' urine positively correlated with the Ni concentration in the inhalable and respirable fraction (R = 0.34, p < 0.005 and R = 0.44, p < 0.002). The correlation between the Mn concentration in the work environment air and the Mn concentration in the welders' whole blood (R = 0.46, p < 0.0001) was observed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Welding processes that generate fumes containing toxic metals, such as hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), manganese (Mn), and nickel (Ni), have been implicated in lung injury, inflammation, and lung tumor promotion in animal models. The principal objective of this study was to determine the dynamics of toxic effects of inhalation exposure to morphologically rated welding dust from stainless steel welding and its soluble form in TSE System with a dynamic airflow. We assessed the pulmonary toxicity of welding dust in Wistar rats exposed to 60.0 mg/m 3 of respirable-size welding dust (mean diameter 1.17 µm) for 2 weeks (6 h/day, 5 days/week); the aerosols were generated in the nose-only exposure chambers (NOEC). An additional aim included the study of the effect of betaine supplementation on oxidative deterioration in rat lung during 2 weeks of exposure to welding dust or water-soluble dust form. The animals were divided into eight groups (n = 8 per group): control, dust, betaine, betaine + dust, soluble-form dust, soluble-form dust + betaine, saline and saline + betaine groups. Rats were euthanized 1 or 2 weeks after the last exposure for assessment of pulmonary toxicity. Differential cell counts, total protein concentrations and cellular enzyme (lactate dehydrogenase-LDH) activities were determined in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and corticosterone and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) concentrations were assessed in serum. The increase in polymorphonuclear (PMN) leukocytes in BAL fluid (a cytological index of inflammatory responses of the lung) is believed to reflect pulmonary toxicity of heavy metals. Biomarkers of toxicity assessed in bronchoalveolar fluids indicate that the level of the toxic effect depends mainly on the solubility of studied metal compounds; biomarkers that showed treatment effects included: total cell, neutrophil and lymphocyte counts, total protein concentrations, and cellular enzyme (lactate dehydrogenase) activity. Betaine supplementation at 250 mg/kg/day in all study rats groups attenuated stress indices, and corticosterone and TBARS serum levels, and simultaneously stimulated increase of polymorphonuclear cells in BALF of rats. The study confirmed deleterious effect of transitory metals and particles during experimental inhalation exposure to welding dusts, evidenced in the lungs and brain by increased levels of total protein, higher cellular influx, rise of LDH in BALF, elevated TBARS and increased corticosterone in serum of rats. Our result confirm also the hypothesis about the effect of the welding dusts on the oxidative stress responsible for disturbed systemic homeostasis and impairment of calcium regulation.

The toxicity and bioavailability of chromium species are highly dependable on the form or species, therefore determination of total chromium is insufficient for a complete toxicological evaluation and risk assessment. An analytical method for determination of soluble and insoluble Cr (III) and Cr (VI) compounds in welding fume at workplace air has been developed. The total chromium (Cr) was determined by using quadruple inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) equipped with a dynamic reaction cell (DRC(®)). Soluble trivalent and hexavalent chromium compounds were determined by high performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). A high-speed, reversed-phase CR C8 column (PerkinElmer, Inc., Shelton, CT, USA) was used for the speciation of soluble Cr (III) and soluble Cr (VI). The separation was accomplished by interaction of the chromium species with the different components of the mobile phase. Cr (III) formed a complex with EDTA, i.e. retained on the column, while Cr (VI) existed in the solutions as dichromate. Alkaline extraction (2% KOH and 3% Na2CO3) and anion exchange column (PRP-X100, PEEK, Hamilton) were used for the separation of the total Cr (VI). The results of the determination of Cr (VI) were confirmed by the analysis of the certified reference material BCR CRM 545 (Cr (VI) in welding dust). The results obtained for the certified material (40.2±0.6 g kg(-1)) and the values recorded in the examined samples (40.7±0.6 g kg(-1)) were highly consistent. This analytical method was applied for the determination of chromium in the samples in the workplace air collected onto glass (Whatman, Ø 37 mm) and membrane filters (Sartorius, 0.8 μm, Ø 37 mm). High performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry is a remarkably powerful and versatile technique for determination of chromium species in welding fume at workplace air., (Crown Copyright © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)