Abstract

A group of 107 lead battery manufacturing workers, whose blood lead levels were above 30 mcg/dl, have been monthly tested for blood lead levels due to the company health policy since 2016. In 2018, 83 workers were enrolled in the scalp hair lead analysis project using cloud point extraction (CPT), ultrasonic acid digestion (UAD) and flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). This study aimed at finding correlation between hair lead levels and serial blood lead levels. Data were obtained with permission from each workers and were analyzed using paired t-test.

All subjects were male workers at the age of 25–58. The working period in this factory ranged from 1–34 years. Latest blood lead levels range from 31.22–58.7 mcg/dl. Hair lead levels ranged from 10.79–712.09 mcg/g in proximal hair segment (n=83) and 41.47–688.64 mcg/g in distal hair segment (n=15). Mean hair lead levels were 163.98 and 259.18 mcg/g in proximal and distal hair segment.

The correlation between hair lead levels and 5 consecutive months blood lead levels before the time of hair sample collection were found to be statistically significant (p 0.008, p 0.030, p 0.021, p 0.009, p 0.019). Lead levels of distal hair segment were 9.72 mcg/g higher than proximal hair segment (p 0.002). Furthermore, significant correlation between distal hair segment lead levels and blood lead levels at some months during 3 year-period were found, but not for the prior 5 consecutive months.