- Project number: F 2510
- Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
- Status: Completed Project
Description:
Businesses that process lead are of great economic significance to the automotive industry and the construction sector, for example. When work involves the handling of lead and its inorganic compounds, lead can accumulate in the body, leading to a range of adverse effects.
To protect employees in lead-processing industries and employees who handle lead and its inorganic compounds and to derive appropriate occupational safety and health (OSH) measures, these workers’ exposure to lead must be determined and assessed. Individual lead exposure is currently assessed by measuring the level of lead in the blood. However, it is not possible to monitor acute exposures and the short-term effectiveness of OSH measures with this method.
This project studied the exposure pathways via the skin (dermal) and the respiratory tract (inhalative), examining lead in whole blood, as well as other biomonitoring parameters. A cross-sectional study was conducted at five companies, each of which was surveyed with two measurement campaigns. For the biomonitoring, various parameters were measured in blood, blood plasma, and urine at defined times during the working week. Dermal exposure was determined by means of wipe samples from employees’ hands. The investigations were supplemented by workplace measurements of airborne lead in the inhalable particle fraction (stationary and personal sampling). The survey covered a broad spectrum of workplaces where various preventive measures had been established.
At present, on the basis of these investigations it is not possible to identify a biomonitoring parameter that allows for reliable conclusions about acute exposures. Since the concentration of lead in urine correlates very closely with the concentration of lead in blood, it could represent a practicable alternative to the measurement of blood lead levels. The ratio of the lead concentration in urine to the lead concentration in blood can potentially be used as a substitute variable to record short-term changes of lead exposure.
In order to evaluate this method conclusively and to derive suitable OSH measures, further scientific studies with larger participant groups will be required.
