National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, 6-21-1 Nagao, Tama-ku, Kawasaki 214-8585, Japan.
Ind Health. 2011;49(2):255-61. doi: 10.2486/indhealth.ms1192. Epub 2010 Dec 16.
In adults, high-level lead exposure often occurs in the lead-related industries. Acute lead poisoning has become rare, but chronic exposure to low-level lead remains a public health issue. With recent advances in our understanding of lead toxicity at low-levels, researchers have shifted their focus to studying lead at concentrations below those currently recommended as 'acceptable' in worker protection. As gender plays an important role in the storage, biokinetics, and toxicity of lead, it seems inappropriate to extrapolate findings of lead exposure in men to women. Women's bones release lead more slowly to the bloodstream, so blood levels remain increased for a long time after cessation of high exposure, reflecting the endogenous source of the lead. Particularly in pregnant women, bone lead release could influence health in pregnancy and be extremely harmful to the rapidly growing and developing fetus. Accordingly, female workers of childbearing age should avoid excessive lead exposure. However, because studies of pregnant workers encounter many difficulties and inconveniences, sufficient research has not been conducted in this area. As an alternative, a group of non-occupationally exposed women, matched as well as possible for anthropometric and reproductive variables and with almost the same levels of blood lead, could be recruited for survey.
在成年人中，高水平的铅暴露通常发生在与铅有关的行业中。急性铅中毒已变得罕见，但慢性低水平铅暴露仍然是一个公共卫生问题。随着我们对低水平铅毒性认识的不断提高，研究人员将注意力转向研究目前被认为是“可接受”的工人保护标准以下的铅浓度。由于性别在铅的储存、生物动力学和毒性方面起着重要作用，将男性铅暴露的研究结果推断到女性身上似乎是不合适的。女性的骨骼向血液中释放铅的速度较慢，因此在停止高暴露后，血液水平会在很长一段时间内保持升高，这反映了铅的内源性来源。特别是在孕妇中，骨铅释放可能会影响妊娠健康，对快速生长和发育的胎儿造成极大危害。因此，育龄期女工应避免过度铅暴露。然而，由于对孕妇的研究存在许多困难和不便，因此在这一领域没有进行充分的研究。作为替代方法，可以招募一组非职业性暴露的女性，尽可能匹配人体测量学和生殖变量，并且血液铅水平几乎相同，用于调查。
