Work hygienic behaviour as modifier of the lead air-lead blood relation

Abstract

Knowledge of hygienic behaviour at the workplace appears to explain the low correlation between external and internal exposure. Differences in hygienic behaviour explain at least the same magnitude of variation in levels of lead in blood as the level of lead in air. Adding hygienic behaviour to the lead air-lead blood model increases the accuracy of prediction of PbB. In this study, the frequency of putting on/off gloves and the frequency of hand-mouth nose/shunt are the strongest modifiers of the PbA-PbB relation. In general, the actual behaviour of workers exposed to chemical agents may explain the often observed poor or moderate relationships between environmental and biological monitoring parameters of chemical exposure in occupational health studies.

Predictors of plasma lead among lithographic print shop workers in Mexico City

“…The negative association found in this study between plasma lead levels and the hygiene index (Table III) suggests that oral exposure and gastrointestinal uptake of lead was the predominant source of lead exposure in these subjects. Other studies have found similar results, but with blood lead levels as the marker of exposure [Ulenbelt et al, 1990;Askin and Volkmann, 1997;Chuang et al, 1999], further substantiating the importance of the hand-mouth mechanism in the occupational environment as a route of lead entry into the body through the digestive tract. Also, respiration of larger particles (>2-3 mm) would be coughed up and swallowed leading to oral intake of airborne lead.…”

“…Better hygiene behavior at work was associated with lower plasma lead levels (Table III). These findings have been observed in other studies where blood lead was used as a dependent variable [Ulenbelt et al, 1990[Ulenbelt et al, , 1991Chuang et al, 1999]. In our study population, lead measurement on hands did not explain plasma lead variability.…”

Specific relationship between blood lead and air lead in the crystal industry

“…Research into mathematical models, which will allow this PbB-PbA relationship to be described in a general or in an occupational environment, has been launched by several teams [6,7,8,12,13,16,17,20,21,22,24,27,31,35,36,37]. However, in the relevant literature, it appears that the case of the crystal industry has been only rarely considered.…”

Cadmium

“…In contrast to the conclusions of WHO (1992b), it is unlikely that Cd in the workplace would be absorbed via the lungs of workers. Hassler (1983) found hygienic behavior to be the dominant factor for Cd and Ni uptake, and a similar situation was found for Pb (Ulenbelt et al 1990). It was stated in these studies that uptake would occur mainly through the mouth and/or nose via the hands.…”