KIRKBY H, GYNTELBERG F, Bloodpressureand other cardiovascular risk factors of long-termexposure to lead. Scand J Work Environ Health II (1985) 15-19. The coronary risk profile was studied for 96 heavily exposed lead smelter workersemployed between 9 and 45 years and for a referencegroup not exposed to lead but comparable with respect to age, sex, height, weight, social grouping, occupational status, and alcohol and tobacco consumption.The lead smelterworkershad a little higher diastolic blood pressureand significantly more ischemic electrocardiographic changes, and their high-density lipoprotein levels were lower than the corresponding values of the referencegroup. The lead workers with electrocardiographic changes had higher blood pressures than the referents with correspondingchanges. These findings indicate a higher coronary risk profile for the examinedlead smelterworkers. The study supports the hypothesis of a positive association between lead exposure and arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure.

The safety of a blood lead concentration of 70 microgram/100 ml as a hygienic border value with regard to development of lead neuropathy was tested in 95 employees, who had been exposed occupationally to lead for more than 9 years. The blood lead concentration was slightly above the border value in nine subjects, while the erythrocyte-Zn-protoporphyrin concentration was significantly elevated in 81 subjects, indicating an abnormal accumulation of metabolically active lead. None of the group showed clinical evidence of peripheral neuropathy, and the vibratory perception thresholds as well as motor conduction data from the median, radial, and common peroneal nerves were normal, as compared with an age-matched control group of 21 non-exposed normal subjects. The amplitude ratio between proximally and distally evoked muscle action potentials was normal in all lead-exposed subjects. These findings suggest that lead-exposed subjects are well protected against peripheral lead neuropathy, when blood lead levels are kept below the hygienic border value.

ABSTRACr The prevalence of lead induced subjective symptoms was evaluated by a standardised questionnaire in a group of 96 workers employed between nine and 45 years in a secondary lead smelting works. A control group of 96 non-lead exposed subjects, matched for age and sex, were chosen from the Glostrup population study. Blood lead concentrations were in excess of 60 ,ug/100 ml in about 30% of the lead workers. Zinc protoporphyrin levels were found to be higher than 500 ,umollHb in nearly 18% of the lead workers. The prevalence of fatigue, headache, sleep disturbance, and digestive symptoms (constipation and colic) were not higher in the lead exposed group. The body weight showed no significant difference in the two groups. Nervousness was four times more frequent in the control group. The results indicate that subjective symptoms are useless as indicators of incipient lead poisoning.In textbooks of occupational medicine the early symptoms of lead poisoning are described as headache, tiredness, nervousness, increasing sleeplessness, loss of appetite, loss of weight, abdominal colic, and constipation.13 In 1977 Lilis et al studied 158 workers from two secondary smelting works and found a high prevalence of such symptoms4; in another study Irving et al also found a high prevalence of subjective symptoms among 139 lead exposed workers.5 The present study was carried out among employees in a Danish lead smelting works in an attempt to show possible long term effects of industrial lead exposure. Effects on the nervous system have been dealt with elsewhere6; here we present the prevalence of subjective symptoms possibly related to long term lead exposure. Populadon and methods EXPOSUREThe lead smelting works where our study took place is a large firm that recovers and refines metals, particularly lead from scrap storage batteries. The annual lead production rate is about 30 000 tons. The crushing and smelting operations produce lead dust and lead fume and lead oxide is also encountered. Within the factory lead exposure varies to a great extent but since job rotation has always been

No abstract

No abstract