Module 3: Toxicology - Section 11: Lead
TOX 11.1: Overview

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

By the end of this module you should

  1. Understand the importance of lead in occupational and environmental health.
  2. Understand the toxicology of lead and its implications for biological monitoring and biological effect monitoring.
  3. Have an idea of the organ systems affected by lead, and in particular be able to distinguish between acute lead toxicity and chronic lead toxicity in those occupationally exposed.
  4. Be able to distinguish clearly between the effects of inorganic and organic lead and different ways of monitoring their exposure and effects.
  5. Be familiar with the Lead Regulations, 2001, and be able to set up a medical surveillance and biological monitoring system.
  6. Understand the control measures to prevent lead toxicity, including the industrial relations implications of the medical removal standard.
Depth: Since lead provides so many lessons in occupational health, you need to be quite familiar with the subject.

ACTIVITIES:

  1. Read Introduction to Toxicity of Metals
  2. Review the notes on Lead
  3. Read Note on Lead control
  4. Review Lead Regulations 2001 (Open up the book on Regulations, and then the book on Lead Regulations 2001), including Note on Lead regulations

EXERCISES:

  1. Do this Lead Regulations Exercise and dicuss on WebCT in the relevant discussion topic.

REFERENCES:

  1. Levin SM, Goldberg M. Clinical evaluation and management of lead exposed construction workers. Am J Ind Med 2000; 37:23-43. (Although it refers to construction workers, it is generic enough to provide a useful summary of lead toxicity and of a modern clinical approach to diagnosing, treating and preventing lead toxicity. This should replace the out of date description of lead toxicity taught at medical schools, viz "anaemia, lead line, basophilic stippling," etc.)
  2. Ehrlich RI, Myers JE. Control of occupational exposure to lead. S Afr Med J 111111; 80: 260-261. (Note that this was written as a critique of the previous set of Lead Regulations. The removal standard has now been dropped from 80 µg/dl to 60 µg/dl, but most of the arguments are still relevant.)



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Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed Jeebhay and Rodney Ehrlich, Health Sciences UCT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers, Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available from here. For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za. Last updated Jan 2007.
Disclaimer note: Some resources and descriptions may be out-dated. For suggested updates and feedback, please contact healthoer@uct.ac.za.