Effects of Occupational Exposure to Inorganic Lead on Neuromuscular Functioning

Abstract

In an investigation of the behavioral effects of Occupational Exposure to lead, nineteen measures of neuromuscular performance and five measures of the body burden of lead were obtained from 316 experimental and 112 control subjects. The experimental subjects were volunteers from among workers exposed to inorganic lead at their jobs in three storage (lead-acid) battery manufacturing companies; the controls were volunteers from companies involved in other various types of light manufacturing. The relationships among the measures of neuromuscular functioning and body burden of lead were determined through the use of correlation and multiple-regression analyses. The results of these analyses suggest that functional capacity decreased in terms of tremor and eye-hand coordination but increased in terms of muscular strength. In addition, the data suggest that these changes occur on the preferred side and at blood-lead levels between 70 and 79 micrograms per cent.