EHP103(11) Article: Biological Monitoring of Iodine, a Water Disinfectant for Long-Term Space Missions

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Rothenberg SJ

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Biological Monitoring of Iodine, a Water Disinfectant for Long-Term Space Missions

Grazyna Zareba, ^1,2 Elsa Cernichiari, ^1,3 Lowell A. Goldsmith, ^1,2 and Thomas W. Clarkson ^1,3

(1) Center for Space Environmental Health
(2) Department of Dermatology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642 USA
(3) Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642 USA

Abstract
In order to establish guidelines for exposure of astronauts to iodine, used as a water disinfectant in space, we studied the usefulness of hair, saliva, and urine for biological monitoring in humans and in the human hair/nude mouse model. The monitoring of iodine in patients that received 150 mCi of Na ¹³¹ I (carrier-free) showed similar patterns of elimination for blood, saliva, and urine. The mean correlation coefficient ( r ) between iodine elimination for blood/saliva was 0.99, for blood/urine, 0.95, and for saliva/urine, 0.97. The absolute value of iodine concentrations in urine revealed marked variability, which was corrected by adjusting for creatinine levels. The autoradiographic studies of human hair demonstrated that iodine is rapidly incorporated into external layers of the hair root and can be removed easily during washing. These data were confirmed after iodine exposure using the human hair/nude mouse model. Hair does not provide satisfactory information about exposure due to unstable incorporation of iodine. The most useful medium for biological monitoring of astronauts exposed to high doses of iodine in drinking water is urine, when adjusted for creatinine, and saliva, if quantitative evaluation of flow rate is provided. Key words : astronauts, biological monitoring, blood, water disinfection, hair, human hair/nude mouse model, iodine, saliva, urine. Environ Health Perspect 103:1032-1035 (1995)

Address correspondence to G. Zareba, Department of Dermatology, University of Rochester, Medical Center Box 697, Rochester, NY 14642 USA.

We thank R.E. O'Mara, chair of the Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Rochester, for access to iodine-treated patients, Kristi Pittman for excellent technical assistance, and Robert Gelein for creatinine analysis. This work is supported in part by grant NAGW-2356 to the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training at the University of Rochester and by grant ES-01247 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Received 27 December 1994; accepted 28 July 1995.

Last Update: March 12, 1997