the Co concentrations were significantly higher in recycling workers (0.073 μg/l; range 0.012–0.16 μg/l) than in office workers (0.017 μg/l, range:
0.0014–0.063 μg/l) (Supplementary Table S3). The plasma concentrations of Cr (0.81 μg/l) and In (0.0043 μg/l) were significantly higher in recycling workers than in office workers at the first, but not at the second, sampling occasion. Concerning the urine samples, Pb (1.8 μg/l) and Hg (1.4 μg/l) were significantly higher among recycling workers during the first occasion, and Pb (2.4 μg/l, range 0.031–17 μg/l) remained higher also at the second sampling (Supplementary Table S3). The concentrations of As in urine showed wide concentrations ranges in both recycling workers (median 13 μg/l, range: 2.4–410 μg/l) and office workers (median 19 μg/l, range: 2.5–200 μg/l) (Table 4). We observed no statistically significant differences in biomarker concentrations between the three recycling work tasks (dismantling, indoors, and outdoors.
We found that non-smoking workers urinary Cd concentration was significantly lower (β = −614, p b 0.001) than the smoking workers concentration. Age affected the urinary concentration of Cd (β = 0.025,