Lead Levels in Urine of Never-Smoking Adult Women in Non-Polluted Areas in Japan, with References to Cadmium Levels in Urine

• Published in: Industrial Health 2004, Vol.42(4), pp.415-423
• Main Authors: FUKUI, Yoshinari, EZAKI, Takafumi, TSUKAHARA, Teruomi, MORIGUCHI, Jiro, FURUKI, Katsuya, OKAMOTO, Satoru, UKAI, Hirohiko, IKEDA, Masayuki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult women; Air Pollution - analysis; Background level; Cadmium; Cadmium - urine; Environmental Exposure - analysis; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Epidemiological Monitoring; Female; General population; Humans; Japan - epidemiology; Lead; Lead - urine; Middle Aged; Never-smokers; Reference Values; Spectrophotometry, Atomic; Time Factors; Urine; Women; Women's Health
• ISSN: 0019-8366; 1880-8026
• DOI: 10.2486/indhealth.42.415

The present study was initiated to assess current level of general population exposure to lead (Pb) in terms of Pb in urine (Pb-U). For this purpose, spot urine samples were collected from 2, 332 never-smoking adult women in 10 areas all-over Japan, and were subjected to analysis for Pb-U by graphite furnace atomic absorption (GFAA). Data on cadmium in urine (Cd-U) as measured by GFAA were cited from a previous publication1). The grand geometric means (GM) for Pb-U as observed, as corrected for creatinine (cr) and as corrected for a specific gravity of 1.016 were 1.06μg/l, 1.28 μg/g cr and 1.14 μg/l, respectively, with small intra- and inter-variations with geometric standard deviations of about 2 or less. Arithmetic means of the 10 GMs (one each for the 10 areas) were 1.05 μg/l, 1.19 μg/g cr and 1.18 μg/l, respectively. The levels observed appeared to be lower than levels reported for other populations in the world. Chronological comparison within Japan suggested a gradual decrease in Pb-U in past over 20 yr. No close correlation was detected between Pb-U and Cd-U.