Effects of direct exposure to lead on some haematological parameters among battery repair workers in Mosul

M. Al-Ameen, Ali; Y. Bashir, Faris

doi:10.33899/mmed.2008.8951

	Effects of direct exposure to lead on some haematological parameters among battery repair workers in Mosul
Annals of the College of Medicine, Mosul
Article 9, Volume 34, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 58-63 PDF (0 K)
DOI: 10.33899/mmed.2008.8951
Authors
Ali M. Al-Ameen; Faris Y. Bashir
Abstract
Objectives: Determination of the degree of lead exposure and to study the possible effects of lead on different haematological parameters.Methods: A haematological study of thirty battery repair workers and thirty-four blood donors (as a control) in the period of 2 months (January – February 1998). All the workers and the donors were subjected to a clinical and laboratory evaluation. The laboratory tests included complete blood picture, blood lead level determination and iron status study.Results: Analysis of lead in the blood showed that the mean blood lead level (BLL) of these workers was significantly higher than that of the control (P< 0.001). 20% of the battery repairers had symptoms, while 16.7% of them had normochromic normocytic anaemia and 23.3% had reticulocytosis. Iron status was normal in all of the repairers but it was found that transferrin saturation of the repairers with BLL of more than 70 µg/dl RBC was significantly higher (P< 0.05) than those repairers with BLL of or less than 70 µg/dl RBC.Conclusion: Battery repairing is an important new source of lead exposure in our community and periodic medical supervision is required as well as improvement of their working conditions.
Keywords
Haematological; workers; battery

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