Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia.
J Occup Med Toxicol. 2014 Mar 19;9(1):12. doi: 10.1186/1745-6673-9-12.
No study has been carried out to assess the blood lead levels of workers or the contribution of common workplace practices to lead exposure in Ethiopia. This study was carried out to assess the blood lead levels of female and male laborers in the construction sector in Jimma town, Ethiopia.
A cross-sectional study on the blood lead levels of 45 construction workers was carried out in the town of Jimma. The t-test, analysis of variance, the Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and odds ratio tests were used to compare mean blood lead levels and to investigate the associations between specific job type, use of self-protection device, sex, service years and occurrence of non-specific symptoms with BLLs.
The mean blood lead level of the exposed group (40.03 ± 10.41 μg/dL) was found to be significantly greater than that of the unexposed group (29.81 ± 10.21 μg/dL), p = 0.05. Among the exposed group female workers were found to have higher mean blood lead level (42.04 ± 4.11 μg/dL) than their male colleagues (33.99 ± 3.28 μg/dL). Laborers who were regularly using self-protection devices were found to have significantly lower blood lead levels than those who were not using.
The blood lead levels of construction workers in Jimma town are considerably high with a range of 20.46 - 70.46 μg/dL and the workers are in danger of imminent lead toxicity. More endangered are female construction workers who are bearers of the future children of the country and the issue requires urgent attention.
在埃塞俄比亚，尚无研究评估工人的血铅水平或常见工作场所实践对铅暴露的影响。本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚吉姆马镇建筑工人的血铅水平。
对吉姆马镇 45 名建筑工人进行了血铅水平的横断面研究。采用 t 检验、方差分析、Kruskal-Wallis 检验、Mann-Whitney 检验和比值比检验来比较平均血铅水平，并探讨特定工作类型、使用个人防护设备、性别、工龄和非特异性症状与 BLL 之间的关系。
暴露组的平均血铅水平（40.03 ± 10.41 μg/dL）明显高于未暴露组（29.81 ± 10.21 μg/dL），p = 0.05。在暴露组中，女性工人的平均血铅水平（42.04 ± 4.11 μg/dL）高于男性同事（33.99 ± 3.28 μg/dL）。定期使用个人防护设备的工人血铅水平明显低于未使用的工人。
吉姆马镇建筑工人的血铅水平相当高，范围在 20.46-70.46 μg/dL，工人有铅中毒的危险。处于更危险境地的是女性建筑工人，她们是国家未来的生育者，这个问题需要引起紧急关注。
