Mechanisms of male mediated developmental toxicity induced by lead.

Abstract

Lead remains one of the most significant occupational and environmental hazards world-wide, despite major efforts to ban its use in gasoline and paints. While environmental exposures have generally fallen in countries such as Canada and the US, occupational exposures remain significant. Workers are exposed in major industries, such as mining, battery manufacture, and electronics; environmental exposures result from emissions to air from stationary sources such as smelters and incinerators, contamination of drinking water from lead plumbing, contact with lead based paint, and leaching of lead from ceramics and glassware. Over the past 10 years, many countries have adopted public health guidance to prevent lead poisoning in children, using current epidemiological and toxicological information to set a blood lead level of 10 mcg/dL as an indicator of potentially toxic exposures. However, occupational guidelines and standards adopted to prevent adult lead toxicity have not been changed for over 20 years. In most developed countries, occupational exposures are set to prevent blood lead elevations above 40 or 50 mcg/dL. These exposures are clearly unsafe since effects on neurological, renal, and nervous system functions have been documented in adults with these levels of lead in blood ()