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Assessement of Blood Lead and Cadmium Levels in Occupationally Exposed Workers of Jodhpur, Rajasthan

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Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In spite of the established knowledge regarding their toxicities, occupational exposure to heavy metals like lead and cadmium still continues because of their wide distribution in environment. Due to lack of awareness, most of the workers usually eat, smoke, drink at their workplace which may aggravate the metal exposure. The present study was planned to assess the blood levels of lead and cadmium in occupationally exposed workers of Jodhpur (India). A total of 110 individuals working in different industrial set ups (furniture, metal handicraft, welders) of Jodhpur district (exposed group), aged between 20 and 60 years and 97 apparently healthy people (controls) with no history of occupational heavy metal exposure aged between 25 and 60 were recruited. Details of personal habits and demographics were recorded by means of self-developed questionnaire. 5 ml of whole blood was drawn from every individual. Metal levels were measured by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Statistical analysis was done using GraphPad Prism Software. Results showed that Blood Lead Level and Blood Cadmium Level (CdB) were significantly higher in the exposed group as compared to the non-exposed group. Significant age and gender-based differences were found in terms of blood cadmium levels but no such difference was observed in case of blood lead. The study also revealed that higher blood levels of these metals in workers are influenced by their occupational practices, lack of protection against workplace environment pollutants, thus increasing their susceptibility to metal toxicity.

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AIIMS, Jodhpur.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, India

    Taru Goyal, Prasenjit Mitra, Preeti Singh, Shailja Sharma & Praveen Sharma

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  1. Taru Goyal
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  2. Prasenjit Mitra
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  3. Preeti Singh
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  4. Shailja Sharma
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Correspondence to Prasenjit Mitra.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

This article involves participations of human subjects with the approval from Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan India. (AIIMS/IEC/2018/555).

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Prior written informed consent was obtained from all subjects recruited in this study.

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Goyal, T., Mitra, P., Singh, P. et al. Assessement of Blood Lead and Cadmium Levels in Occupationally Exposed Workers of Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Ind J Clin Biochem 36, 100–107 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12291-020-00878-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12291-020-00878-6

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