The estimation of the impact upon the health of people living in the vicinity of a lead polluting industrial area. Study on adults

Abstract. Existing medical literature offers extensive data on the effects in humans exposed to lead. It is in this context that we undertook an observational study aiming at: (1)the biochemical, hematological and biotoxicological changes in a group of subjects living in Pantelimon village, an area exposed to lead, assessing the results by correlation to 2 control groups: subjects with occupational exposure to lead and subjects which are not occupationally exposed to lead and do not live in Pantelimon village; (2)correlations between results of the quantitative analysis of soil lead levels and the biotoxicological results in the group of subjects living in Pantelimon village; (3)issues concerning study group subjects’ health condition.
The main results of this study show: (1)significant changes in the biotoxicological aspects of Pantelimon residents (BLL, DAL and FEP); (2)the quantitative analysis of soil lead shows levels above the alert threshold for susceptible areas (populated areas); (3)occurrence of chronic diseases in the study group (cardiovascular, digestive, rheumatic, respiratory, etc.) does not differ significantly from the general prevalence of chronic conditions in young urban population (according to estimates released by the Ministry of Health). The present study results must be regarded as the starting point for conducting future studies aimed at exposing the long term effects of lead pollution in the general population.