Exposures to lead during urban combat training.

Abstract

Lead exposure is still a major concern for occupations that regularly train or work with firearms, such as law enforcement and military personnel. Due to the increasing number of women of fertile age in such professions, there is a strong incentive to monitor lead exposures during firearms training. Personal air sampling was performed during two sessions of a nine-day urban combat training (UCT) course for cadets in the Swedish Armed Forces, one session employing leaded ammunition (leaded scenario) and one session employing unleaded ammunition (unleaded scenario). Blood lead levels (BLLs) were measured before and after the course for 42 cadets and five instructors. During the leaded scenario, the instructors' airborne exposure (geometric mean, GM, 72.0μg/m3) was higher than that of cadets (GM 42.9μg/m3). During the unleaded scenario, airborne concentrations were similar for instructors and cadets and considerably lower than during the leaded scenario (GM 2.9μg/m3). Despite comparably low external lead exposures during the course, we saw a statistically significant increase in systemic exposure for cadets (BLL GM increased from 1.09 to 1.71μg/dL, p<0.001). For the five instructors, notable differences were seen depending on task. The largest increase was seen for the two instructors performing close supervision during the leaded scenario (BLL GM increased from 2.41μg/dL to 4.83μg/dL). For the remaining three instructors the BLLs were unchanged (BLL GMs were 1.25μg/dL before the course and 1.26μg/dL after). None of the participants exceeded the applicable biological exposure limits, but extrapolating our findings shows that instructors in the leaded scenario may reach levels around 10μg/dL after a year of repeated exposures. We conclude that comparably low airborne concentrations can contribute to the body burden of lead and that additional measures to reduce exposure are warranted, particularly for instructors.