Lead poisoning: I. Some clinical and toxicological observations on the effects of occupational lead exposure among firearms instructors

Abstract

Lead poisoning continues to be a common occupational disease in many countries. During the past two decades, poisoning presenting with overt clinical symptoms has become less frequent because of improvement in control of exposure, and attention has been focused on subtle biochemical and "subclinical" manifestations of lead toxicity. Firearms instructors constitute an occupational group at risk for excessive exposure to lead from the firing of arms in shooting galleries. This paper summarizes clinical and toxicological observations among lead-exposed firearms instructors and illustrates the wide spectrum of clinical and laboratory abnormalities that may occur in this occupational group. As clinical research has advanced, significant biochemical and clinical aberrations have been detected at progressively lower blood lead levels both among occupationally exposed adults and among children who are exposed to lead in the general environment. The latter is of great public health concern and has spurred efforts worldwide to reduce human exposure to lead to an absolute minimum.