{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,14]],"date-time":"2026-10-14T23:25:09Z","timestamp":1792020309828,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,2]],"date-time":"2022-10-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1664668800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the ZANVYL AND ISABELLE KRIEGER FUND","award":["2509\/21"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2509\/21"]}]},{"name":"Israel Science Foundation (NG-C)","award":["2509\/21"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2509\/21"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JPM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We aimed to evaluate the types and concentrations of trace elements in tears of individuals living in urban and rural environments using particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and the possible association with exposure to air pollution and suggest a novel method for tear-based biomonitoring studies. This cross-sectional pilot study comprised 42 healthy subjects, 28 living in a rural area and 14 in an industrial city. Tears were collected with Schirmer paper and characterized by PIXE. Trace element concentrations from both eyes were averaged together with environmental pollution data. Main outcome measures were between-group differences in types and concentrations of trace elements in tears and comparison to environmental data. The rural group included 12\/28 men, mean age 45.2 \u00b1 14.8 years. The urban group consisted of 11\/14 men of mean age 27 \u00b1 5.9 years. Six rural and all urban were active smokers. Air pollution data showed more toxic elements in the rural environment. On PIXE analysis, chlorine, sodium, and potassium were found in similar concentrations in all samples. Normalizing to chlorine yielded higher values of aluminum, iron, copper, and titanium in the rural group; aluminum was found only in the rural group. The higher levels of certain trace elements in the rural group may, in part, be a consequence of exposure to specific environmental conditions. No direct association was found with air pollution data. PIXE is useful to analyze trace elements in tears, which might serve as a marker for individual exposure to environmental pollutants in biomonitoring studies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jpm12101633","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,9]],"date-time":"2022-10-09T01:43:11Z","timestamp":1665279791000},"page":"1633","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Trace Elements in Tears: Comparison of Rural and Urban Populations Using Particle Induced X-ray Emission"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Olga","family":"Girshevitz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Engineering and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Noa","family":"Cohen-Sinai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Haifa 339419, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9451-5253","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alon","family":"Zahavi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rabin Medical Center\u2014Beilinson Hospital, Petach Tikva 4941492, Israel"},{"name":"Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yoav","family":"Vardizer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Haifa 339419, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0963-7908","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dror","family":"Fixler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Engineering and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5648-1873","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nitza","family":"Goldenberg-Cohen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Haifa 339419, Israel"},{"name":"The Krieger Eye Research Laboratory, Bruce and Ruth Rapaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1688","DOI":"10.1080\/10473289.2000.10464196","article-title":"Inhalation transfer factors for air pollution health risk assessment","volume":"50","author":"Lai","year":"2000","journal-title":"J. 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