liver damage risk assessment study in workers occupationally exposed to e-waste in benin city, south-south nigeria

large volumes of mostly irreparable electronic waste (e-waste) are shipped to africa on a monthly basis, of which nigeria receives the largest share. e-waste management practices in nigeria have remained completely primitive until date; and e-waste workers have little or no occupational safety knowledge and devices. the thousands of chemicals in e-waste have been reported to be toxic to human health in any degree of exposure. the present study has assessed the risk of liver damage in workers occupationally exposed to e-waste in benin city, south-south nigeria in 2014. serum activities of liver enzymes [alanine aminotransferase (alt), aspartate aminotransferase (ast), gamma glutamyltransferase (ggt) and alkaline phosphatase (alp)]; and levels albumin (alb), total bilirubin (t/bil) and conjugated bilirubin (c/bil) were determined using standard colorimetric methods. serum alpha fetoprotein (afp) was determined using elisa in nigerian e-waste workers (n=63) and in age-matched unexposed participants (n=41) in benin city. the results showed significantly raised activities of enzymatic biomarkers of liver damage (alt, ast, alp and ggt) in the e-waste group compared with the unexposed participants. there was no significant difference in the levels of alb, t/bil and c/bil between exposed and unexposed participants. afp levels in e-waste workers (3.56 ± 0.34 ng/ml) were significantly different compared with the unexposed group (2.14 ± 0.80 ng/ml) ( p < 0.045). the significantly elevated cancer risk biomarker (afp) and the enzymatic biomarkers of liver damage observed in the nigerian e-waste workers studied may be associated with occupational exposure to known carcinogens and hepatotoxic metals in e-waste.