Lead: ongoing public and occupational health issues in vulnerable populations: a case study
Lead: ongoing public and occupational health issues in vulnerable populations: a case study
复制标题
DOI：
10.1093/pubmed/fdr077
复制
发表时间：
2012-06-01
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
Cordery, R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kar-Purkayastha, I.;Balasegaram, S.;Cordery, R.
尽管随着广泛的职业和公共卫生措施的出台，近年来英国和其他发达国家普通人群的血铅水平一直在下降，但铅已越来越被认为是一种公共卫生风险。尽管如此，铅中毒的情况仍然时有发生。我们报告了大批接触铅的工人及其家人，其中包括几名儿童。职业和公共卫生调查的重点是确定面临风险的不同群体以及发生潜在接触的途径。工作场所中的铅被发现是由于“干净”和“肮脏”区域之间的界限不充分以及个人物品被铅污染而导致接触铅的工人血铅水平升高的原因。此外，有证据表明家庭成员存在职业性接触。在该案例中成功控制铅需要多学科的工作。努力包括广泛的工作场所控制，以及对工人及其家人的教育和照顾，尽管由于受影响群体对英国医疗服务缺乏熟悉、语言障碍、识字水平低和流动性大，情况变得复杂。
Lead has been recognized increasingly as a public health risk, although with the introduction of wide-ranging occupational and public health measures, levels of blood lead in the general population of the UK and other developed nations have been in decline in recent years. Nonetheless, cases of lead poisoning still occur.We report on a large cluster of exposed lead workers and their families, including several children. The focus of the occupational and public health investigations was to identify the different groups at risk and the pathways by which potential exposures were taking place.Lead in the workplace was found to account for the raised blood lead levels amongst the workers with exposure occurring as a result of insufficient demarcation between oclean' and odirty' areas, and from contamination of personal belongings with lead. Furthermore, there was evidence of para-occupational exposure of family members.The successful control of lead in this case required multidisciplinary working. Efforts included extensive workplace controls, along with the education and care of workers and their families, though complicated by lack of familiarity with the UK health service amongst the affected groups, language barriers, underlying low levels of literacy and high mobility.