Occupational determinants of cumulative lead exposure: analysis of bone lead among men in the VA normative aging study.

Abstract

To examine the relation between occupation and cumulative lead exposure-assessed by measuring bone lead-in a community-dwelling population. We measured bone lead concentration with K-shell X-Ray Fluorescence in 1320 men in the Normative Aging Study. We categorized job titles into 14 broad US Census Bureau categories. We used ordinary least squares regression to estimate bone lead by job categories adjusted for other predictors. Service workers, construction, and extractive craft workers and installation, maintenance, and repair craft workers had the highest bone lead concentrations. Including occupations significantly improved the overall model (P < 0.001) and reduced by 15% to 81% the association between bone lead and education categories. Occupation significantly predicts cumulative lead exposure in a community-dwelling population and accounts for a large proportion of the association between education and bone lead.