Mycotoxins’ exposure by inhalation and/or dermal contact can occur in different branches of industry especially where heavily dusty settings are present and the handling of dusty commodities is performed. This study aims to explore the possible contribution of the occupational exposure to aflatoxins by analysing urine samples for the presence of aflatoxins B₁ and M₁ and aflatoxin B₁-N⁷-guanine adduct. The study was conducted in 2017 on two groups of volunteers, the workers group, composed by personnel employed in an Italian feed plant (n = 32), and a control group (n = 29), composed by the administrative employees of the same feed plant; a total of 120 urine samples were collected and analysed. A screening method and a quantitative method with high-resolution mass spectrometry determination were developed and fully validated. Limits of detections were 0.8 and 1.5 pg/mL_urine for aflatoxin B₁ and M₁, respectively. No quantitative determination was possible for the adduct aflatoxin B₁-N⁷-guanine. Aflatoxin B₁ and its adduct were not detected in the analysed samples, and aflatoxin M₁, instead, was found in 14 samples (12%) within the range 1.9–10.5 pg/mL_urine. Only one sample showed a value above the limit of quantification (10.5 pg/mL_urine). The absence of a statistical difference between the mean values for workers and the control group which were compared suggests that in this specific setting, no professional exposure occurs. Furthermore, considering the very low level of aflatoxin M₁ in the collected urine samples, the contribution from the diet to the overall exposure is to be considered negligible.

中文翻译：

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用于尿样中黄曲霉毒素测定的LC-HRMS方法的优化和验证。

霉菌毒素通过吸入和/或皮肤接触引起的暴露可能发生在不同的行业部门中，尤其是在存在多尘的环境中并且进行了多尘商品的处理时。本研究旨在通过分析尿液样品中是否存在黄曲霉毒素B ₁和M ₁以及黄曲霉毒素B ₁ -N ^7-鸟嘌呤加合物来探讨职业暴露于黄曲霉毒素的可能贡献。该研究于2017年针对两组志愿者进行，一组是由意大利饲料厂雇用的人员组成的工人组（n  = 32），另一组是对照组（n = 29），由同一家饲料厂的管理人员组成；总共收集并分析了120个尿液样本。开发并充分验证了高分辨率质谱法的筛选方法和定量方法。黄曲霉毒素B ₁和M ₁的检出限分别为0.8和1.5 pg / mL_尿液。对于加合物黄曲霉毒素B ₁ -N ^7-鸟嘌呤不可能进行定量测定。在分析的样品中未检出黄曲霉毒素B ₁及其加合物，在1.9–10.5 pg / mL_尿液中的14个样品中检出了黄曲霉毒素M ₁（12％）。。只有一个样品显示出超过定量极限的值（10.5 pg / mL_尿液）。进行比较的工人平均值与对照组平均值之间没有统计差异，这表明在这种特定环境下，没有职业接触发生。此外，考虑到收集到的尿液样品中黄曲霉毒素M _1的含量非常低，因此饮食对总暴露量的影响可以忽略不计。