Influence of High Past Lead-in-Air Exposures on the Lead-in-Blood Levels of Lead-Acid Battery Workers with Continuing Exposure

We investigated the relationship between air lead levels and blood lead levels in 132 lead-acid battery workers in two plants who were followed for 30 months between 1983 and 1985 with frequent air lead and blood lead determinations. Both plants converted to more modern, expanded-metal battery manufacturing technologies around 1978 with associated reductions in mean air lead exposures from greater than 100 to less than 30 µg/m3. In multiple regression analyses including consideration of job category, seniority, age, ethnicity, gender, and smoking habit as covariates, there was a highly significant association of blood lead in µg/dL with air lead in µg/m3 (partial R2=.20, P < .0001) among the 68 workers in plant B but no association (P = .91) in plant A. Restriction of the regression analysis to those 44 workers in plant B with