Association between Inhaled Lead Exposure and Blood Lead Levels in Paint Industry Workers
Keywords:
blood lead levels, inhalation, lead, occupational exposure, paint industryAbstract
The paint industries which still use lead as an ingredient for pigments and coloring can be considered as the source of lead occupational exposure for the workers where the exposure dominantly occurs through inhalation. Blood lead levels (BLLs or Pb-B) is considered biomarkers of lead exposure. The present study was designed to investigate the association between the concentration of lead in blood (Pb-B) in paint industry workers from Indonesia. A total of 52 paint industry workers aged 25-50 years participated in this study. The inhaled lead concentration was measured in workers’ breathing zone using personal sampler pump and analyzed with EDXRF method. Mean inhaled lead exposure was 0.1693 0.1 g/m3 and the lowest exposure concentration was in Industry A. Meanwhile, the product finishing process gave the highest inhaled lead concentration, even though it is not significantly higher than other process (p-value = 0.4). Mean blood lead was 4.213 1.6 g/L; and 17 workers (32.7%) crossed the recommended level of 5 g/L. There was a positive correlation between the inhaled lead exposure and blood lead levels in Industry A and Industry B (p-value = 0.467 and 0.488 respectively), meanwhile in Industry C the correlation was found to be negative (p-value = 0.021). Aside from the inhaled lead concentration, the usage of the PPE usage at work significantly affects the blood lead levels (p-value = 0.01) where workers who always wear mask at work actually will not absorb lead exposure as much as the measured lead concentration in their breathing zones.
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