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Module 3: Toxicology -
Section 11: Lead |
TOX 11.1: Overview |
GENERAL OBJECTIVES
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By the end of this module
you should
- Understand the
importance of lead in occupational and environmental health.
- Understand the
toxicology of lead and its implications for biological monitoring and
biological effect monitoring.
- 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.
- Be able to distinguish
clearly between the effects of inorganic and organic lead and different
ways of monitoring their exposure and effects.
- Be familiar with the
Lead Regulations, 2001, and be able to set up a medical surveillance
and biological monitoring system.
- Understand the control
measures to prevent lead toxicity, including the industrial relations
implications of the medical removal standard.
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Depth: Since lead provides so many
lessons in occupational health, you need to be quite familiar with the
subject.
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ACTIVITIES:
- Read Introduction to Toxicity of
Metals
- Review the notes on Lead
- Read Note on Lead control
- Review Lead
Regulations
2001 (Open up the book on
Regulations, and then the book on Lead Regulations 2001), including Note on Lead regulations
EXERCISES:
REFERENCES:
- 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 This should replace the out of
date description of lead toxicity taught at medical schools, viz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.)
- 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.)
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.