Investigation on blood, urine and nail lead levels of workers in a battery plant

Objective To observe the relation among blood, urine and nail lead levels and explore the value of these indexes in the diagnosis of occupational disease.

Methods Blood samples, urine samples and nail samples of 203 workers were collected in a battery plant. The concentrations of blood lead, urine lead and nail lead were determined with graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry.

Results The average of lead fume and dust concentration were(0.31 ±0.37)mg/m³ and (0.28 ±0.50)mg/m³, respectively. The average of blood lead concentration was(280.37 ±164.86)μg/L with the abnormality 22.7%. The mean value of urine lead concentration was(0.035 ±0.042)mg/L with the abnormality 11.3%. The average of nail lead concentration was(1 407.96 ±2 625.26)μg/g. Blood lead, urine lead and nail lead levels of male workers were higher than those of female workers(P < 0.01 or 0.05). The variation of both blood and urine lead levels among workers with different working time were not statistically significant different(P>0.05). There was a linear relation between blood lead and nail lead(r=0.544, P < 0.01), and between urine lead and nail lead(r=0.546, P < 0.01).

Conclusion The abnormality of blood lead, urine lead and nail lead levels among these lead-exposed workers in this battery plant is high. The level of nail lead has a good relation with blood lead and could be used as an auxiliary indicator for the diagnosis of occupational chronic lead poisoning.,