This article describes the current situation of occupational health (OH) in Mexico, including socioeconomic context, legislation, health system, and educative and investigative resources, as well as the practice of OH. Workplace accidents per 100 workers decreased from 7.23 to 2.3 workers in 20 years; deaths decreased from 1.68 to 0.9 per 10,000 workers, while the occupational disease rate increased from 0.6 to 1 per 10,000 workers. This can be interpreted as an improvement in preventive measures as well as problems of recognition and registry. In Mexico OH faces challenges that range from needs for professional training and performance to needs for development of legal measures, coordination, information, and research.
Blood lead levels (BLL) in children are associated with lead in soil and represent a major public health problem; however, there are few reports of lead contamination related to mining waste sites in Mexico. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study in the State of Guerrero to identify the association between proximity of residence to mining site waste and BLL in children. The impact of the different variables related to BLL were analyzed with logistic regression. Geometric mean BLL was 13.6 µg/dL, 15.9 µg/dL in communities proximal to waste sites and 5.5 µg/dL in a distant control community. Children living in communities near the mining waste have higher BLL that children living in communities far away from the waste. Our results are similar to studies in other countries and indicate that mining waste sites remain an active source of BLL contamination that affect children's health.
Objectives: To identify blood lead predictors and the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in firearm users of public security in Mexico. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 65 males. We obtained sociooccupational data and determined venous blood lead (blood (B), lead (Pb) -BPb), as well as neuropsychiatric symptoms using the Q-16 questionnaire. A multiple linear regression model was constructed to assess determinants of BPb. Results: The mean age in the study group was 34.8 years (standard deviation (SD) = 6.9, range: 21-60); the mean number of years spent in the company amounted to 14 years (SD = 8.5, range: 1-48). Twenty percent of the respondents (N = 13) used leaded glazed clay pottery (lead (Pb), glazed (G), and clay pottery (C) -PbGC) in the kitchen. During practice they fired a mean of 72 shots (SD = 60,, and during their whole duration of employment 5483 shots (SD = 8322.5, range: 200-50 000). The mean BPb was 7.6 μg/dl (SD = 6.8, range: 2.7-51.7). Two caretakers from the firing range had 29.6 μg/dl and 51.7 μg/dl BPb. The subjects who had shooting practice sessions ≥ 12 times a year reported a greater percentage of miscarriages in their partners (24% vs. 0%). Twelve percent of the respondents showed an increase in neuropsychiatric symptoms. The BPb multiple linear regression model explained R 2 = 44.15%, as follows: those who had ≥ 12 practice sessions per year -β = 0.5339 and those who used PbGC -β = 0.3651. Conclusions: Using firearms and PbGC contributes to the increased BPb in the studied personnel. The determinants of BPb were: shooting practices >12 times a year and using PbGC. Blood lead concentrations reported in the study, despite being low, are a health risk, as evidenced by the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.