Blood pressure, left ventricular mass, and lead exposure in battery manufacturing workers.
Authors
Tepper-AL; Mueller-C; Singal-M; Sagar-K
Source
Am J Ind Med 2001 Jul; 40(1):63-72
Abstract
Background: Although debate about the relationship between lead and blood pressure has focused on low environmental lead levels, industrial exposure remains a concern. Methods: We measured blood pressure and left ventricular mass (LVM) in 108 battery manufacturing workers, and calculated cumulative and historic average measures of blood lead. Results: Diastolic pressure increased with increasing lead levels, with a significant (P= 0.04) 5 mmHg difference in mean pressure between the highest and lowest cumulative exposure levels. Diastolic pressure increased with the log of cumulative lead (P= 0.06). Both hypertension (defined as currently medicated or systolic greater than 160 mmHg or diastolic greater than 95 mmHg) and LVM increased nonsignificantly with increasing lead exposure (P-values greater than or equal to 0.17 for hypertension and greater than or equal to 0.20 for LVM). Conclusions: We found a small effect of blood lead on diastolic blood pressure, particularly for a cumulative measure of exposure, but no convincing evidence of associations between lead and other blood-pressure-related outcomes.
Keywords
Lead-absorption; Lead-compounds; Heavy-metals; Blood-pressure; Environmental-exposure; Environmental-pollution; Industrial-emissions; Industrial-exposures; Battery-manufacturing-industry; Industrial-factory-workers; Hypertension; Cardiovascular-disease; Cardiovascular-function; Cardiovascular-system; Cardiovascular-system-disease; Cardiovascular-system-disorders;
Author Keywords: lead; blood pressure; hypertension; cardiovascular disease; battery
manufacturing
Contact
AllisonTepper, PhD, Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies,National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 4676 Columbia Parkway R-10, Cincinnati, OH 45226.
Document Type
Journal Article
Email Address
atepper@cdc.gov
Source Name
American Journal of Industrial Medicine
