Trends in blood lead levels in UK workers, 1995–2007

Morton, Jackie; Cotton, Richard; Cocker, John; Warren, Nicholas

doi:10.1136/oem.2009.047258

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This practice is increasingly being recognised as potentially inadequate for anything other than rudimentary nonparametric statistical treatments of the data and can lead to substantial bias in results (Flynn 2010;Helsel 2010). In this study, a more sophisticated treatment of these values as left-censored observations was implemented in this study within a Bayesian framework (Morton et al 2010). However, these results, which are not presented here, are almost identical to those obtained using the simpler methodology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beryllium in urine by ICP-MS: a comparison of low level exposed workers and unexposed persons

Morton

Leese

Cotton

et al. 2010

Int Arch Occup Environ Health

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beryllium in urine by ICP-MS: a comparison of low level exposed workers and unexposed persons

Morton

Leese

Cotton

et al. 2010

Int Arch Occup Environ Health

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“…[ 1 ] The European Union's Chemical Agents Directive 98/24/EC [ 2 ] specifies the use of Biological Monitoring (BM) and blood sampling for the assessment of workers' lead exposure and takes into account all routes of lead exposure. [ 3 ] Occupational Hygienist professionals routinely use air and surface sampling as it is complementary to BM when evaluating workers risk to lead exposure but has the advantage of being non-invasive and able to confirm that the workplace is the origin of exposure. Usually, lead exposure is quantified at an off-site laboratory several days after sampling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immediate screening of lead exposure in the workplace using portable X-ray fluorescence

Gorce

Roff

2015

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene

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The use of a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (PXRF) equipped with a miniaturised X-ray tube producing a small 8 mm diameter X-ray beam required the validation of two new sampling protocols for the immediate screening of occupational lead exposure.First, lead in dust and fumes, collected by Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) inhalable samplers on 25 mm diameter membrane filters, is quantified using PXRF. To account for irregular dust deposition, the filters are rotated manually by quarter turns. Multiple PXRF readings are collected from the central region and from two locations in the outer region. The inner region is distinguishable from the outer region, but the two outer region locations are indistinguishable.High correlations (R2 > 0.99) are found between the PXRF results and historical results obtained using a reference method based on a laboratory wavelength-dispersive sequential XRF instrument (WDXRF) for lead loadings between 1–161 μg. The PXRF results from the outer regions of the filters show a bias of −13% with respect to the WDXRF. Once this bias is allowed for, 95% of all PXRF results lie within −28% and +38% of the WDXRF results. Neither instrument accounts for potential dust accumulation on the walls of the IOM sampler. Therefore, methods based on their use can only be considered semi-quantitative.Second, a protocol combining direct PXRF measurements on workplace surfaces with surface wipes is designed for immediate on-site quantification of removable surface lead residues. The quantification of such residues by this method is compared with subsequent off-site wet chemistry analysis of the surface wipes. The two methods show a good correlation (R2 ∼ 0.88). The ratio of the amount of removable residues determined by PXRF and wipe sampling is close to one with range 0.26–3.94.It is demonstrated that PXRF can be used as an effective tool for the immediate screening of occupational lead exposure. Although this article focused on lead, PXRF can identify simultaneously a number of other metals.

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“…In the United Kingdom, one study reported that 0.6% of workers had BLLs >60 μg/dL, which is the suspension limit. 36 Matte et al reported that 28% of Jamaica lead-acid battery workers had BLLs >60 μg/dL. 37 The authors concluded that the factory had inadequate controls and respiratory protections.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Lead Exposure and Urinary-δ-aminolevulinic Acid Levels in Male Lead Acid Battery Workers in Tamil Nadu, India

Kalahasthi¹,

Barman²

2018

Journal of Health and Pollution

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Background.Exposure to lead (Pb) affects multiple health outcomes and physiological systems. In adults, even small increases in blood Pb levels have been associated with decreased glomerular filtration rate, increased risk of hypertension and increased incidence of essential tremor. To date, there have been few Pb-exposure assessments using the United States Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) regulations.Objective.The aim of the present study was to assess Pb-exposure in terms of elevated blood lead levels (BLL) and urinary-δ-aminolevulinic acid (U-δ-ALA) levels of workers exposed to Pb in the lead acid battery industry in Tamil Nadu, India based on Pb exposure regulations set by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) and OSHA.Materials and Methods.BLLs and U-δ-ALA were estimated in 449 male workers exposed to Pb across ten different job categories in a lead acid battery factory. Worker BLLs were estimated using atomic absorption spectrophotometry and U-δ-ALA was estimated using spectrophotometry.Results.The Biological Exposure Index of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (BEI-ACGIH) were used to assess Pb exposure. BLLs <30 μg/dL were found in 63.5% of workers, and 36.5% of workers had BLLs>30 μg/dL. The present study also assessed Pb exposure using OSHA regulations and found that 83.3% of workers had BLLs <40 μg/dL and 16.7% of workers had BLLs>40 μg/dL. Among these workers, 0.7% of workers had BLLs >60 μg/dL. An excessive excretion of U-δ-ALA (20–40 mg/L) was noted in pasting area workers (2.6%) followed by executives (2.2%) and assembly workers (0.9%).Conclusions.Workers in the job categories of pasting and assembly, as well as executives, are at high risk of Pb exposure compared to other job categories. We recommend placing humidifiers on the roof and keeping a water bath closer the to plate cutting area to reduce fugitive Pb dust emissions. We recommended workers with BLLs >60 μg/dL be removed from jobs involving Pb exposure and return to work only when their BLLs are <40 μg/dL.Participant consent.ObtainedEthics Approval.The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Regional Occupational Health Centre (Southern) Bengaluru, part of the National Institute of Occupational Health of India.Competing Interests.The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Trends in blood lead levels in UK workers, 1995–2007

Cited by 9 publications

References 23 publications

Beryllium in urine by ICP-MS: a comparison of low level exposed workers and unexposed persons

Beryllium in urine by ICP-MS: a comparison of low level exposed workers and unexposed persons

Immediate screening of lead exposure in the workplace using portable X-ray fluorescence

Assessment of Lead Exposure and Urinary-δ-aminolevulinic Acid Levels in Male Lead Acid Battery Workers in Tamil Nadu, India

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