A pilot survey of blood lead levels in various types of workers in the United Arab Emirates

Bener, Abdülbari; Almehdi, Ahmed M.; Alwash, R; Al-Neamy, F.R.M.

doi:10.1016/s0160-4120(01)00061-7

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…These findings require urgent prevention, intervention, and protection from the ministry of health and other non-governmental organizations. Similar data were reported in many countries, including the neighboring ones [20][21][22]. According to the present data, there was a significant increase in the prevalence of self-reported symptoms with increasing years of work in the gasoline station.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Exposure of gasoline professionals to leaded gasoline in Asyut governorate

Ahmed

Ahmed²

2015

IJBAS

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Background: Gasoline is a complex manufactured mixture that does not exist naturally in the environment and produced from petroleum in the refining process. Gasoline discussed in this profile is automotive gasoline used as a fuel for engines in automobiles and other vehicles. Unleaded gasoline was introduced in the greater area Asyut, and 10% of the total sales of gasoline were unleaded. There were no previous studies on pollution caused by gasoline exposure in Asyut governorate in Upper Egypt, so, in this study we try to concern on the effect of air pollution from automobile exhaust on hematological and biochemical parameters of professionals. Materials and methods: Hundred and twenty samples from professionals have been collected from Asyut Governorate; they divided into four groups each group contain thirty samples. 10 milliliter of venous blood sample was withdrawn, over EDTA, from each individual, to determine the values of hematological, biochemical parameters and blood-lead level. Results and discussion: According to the present study, it was found that there was a significant increase in blood-lead level, hemoglobin levels and white blood cells count in all of the exposed groups. On the other hand, creatinine level shows significant decrease but there were a significant increase urea level and increase in some liver function's levels (ALT and AST) in all tested groups. Conclusion: The exposure to gasoline caused some toxic lesions on some parameters (hematological and biochemical). It is also observed that enzyme activity (AST, ALT) increase significantly compared with control.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Exposure of gasoline professionals to leaded gasoline in Asyut governorate

Ahmed

Ahmed²

2015

IJBAS

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“…This clearly indicates that auto-garage workers are more likely to be exposed to lead due to occupational incidences than the general population. Furthermore, the results obtained in our study are consistent with the results of other studies carried out on the determination of the BLLs of: ninety-seven occupationally and non-occupationally exposed individuals in Nigeria [20], workers involved in various types of jobs in the United Arab Emirates [21], thirty one male non-smoking industrial workers in Iran [22], and apprentices working in lead-related industries in Turkey [6]. Among the lead-exposed garage workers, the mean BLL of individuals who were mainly involved in manual auto painting (21.12 ± 5.59 μg/dL) was slightly higher than that of the mechanics (19.19 ± 4.08 μg/dL).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Occupational lead exposure among automotive garage workers – a case study for Jimma town, Ethiopia

Adela

Ambelu

Tessema

2012

J Occup Med Toxicol

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BackgroundIn Ethiopia, although there are numerous small-scale and medium industries which use lead-based raw materials that may pose health risks to workers, there are no workplace regulations for lead exposure. Moreover, there are no studies carried out on the blood lead levels (BLLs) of workers or on the contribution of common workplace practices to lead poisoning.MethodA cross-sectional study on the BLLs of 45 automotive garage workers and 40 non-garage workers was carried out in the town of Jimma, Ethiopia. In addition to BLL analysis, data on some risk factors such as smoking, and chewing ‘khat’ (the leaves of Catha adulis) were gathered through structured questionnaires and interviews and data analysis was performed using SPSS (version 16). The t-test was used to compare mean BLLs of study groups. The analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis, Pearson chi-square and odds ratio tests were used to investigate the associations between specific job type, smoking and/or ‘khat’ chewing, service years and occurrence of non-specific symptoms with BLLs.ResultsThe mean BLL of the automotive-garage workers was found to be significantly greater than that of the controls. The BLLs of all the lead-exposed individuals were found to be over 10 μg/dL, and 53% of them had BLLs ranging 12 – 20 μg/dL, with the remaining 47% having over 20 μg/dL. The BLL of the workers increased with the duration of working in an automotive garage.Individuals involved in manual car painting comprise a larger percentage (58%) of those with the highest BLLs (≥ 20 μg/dL). Lead accumulation in individuals who chew ‘khat’ in the work place was found to be faster than in those who are not used to chewing ‘khat’. ‘Khat’ is an evergreen shrub native to tropical East Africa, with dark green opposite leaves which are chewed when fresh for their stimulating effects.ConclusionThe findings of the study have clearly demonstrated that the BLLs of automotive-garage workers in Jimma town are considerably high with a range of 11.73 – 36.52 μg/dL and the workers are in danger of impending lead toxicity. The BLLs of the workers are influenced by their occupational practices, chewing Catha adulis leaves at the workplace, and the time spent working in an automotive garage.

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“…There are several surveys showing that people who work in lead-related industries have higher blood lead levels than other people [16][17][18][19] . This is an expected condi- tion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%