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

الملخص EN

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.