Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Adults -- United States,Second
Quarter, 1992
In the United States, more than 95% of elevated blood lead
levels (BLLs) in adults result from workplace exposure (1).
Beginning with this issue of MMWR, CDC's National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will report on a quarterly
basis summary results of state-based surveillance programs for
elevated BLLs (greater than or equal to 25 ug/dL) among adults
(Table 1). In addition to the 18 states with blood lead
surveillance programs previously reported (2), three other states
maintain such activities, including Arizona (physician reporting of
BLLs greater than or equal to 25 ug/dL, all ages), Florida
(laboratory reporting of BLLs greater than or equal to 10 ug/dL,
all ages), and Nebraska (laboratory reporting of BLLs greater than
or equal to 10 ug/dL, all ages).
Of the 21 states, 12 currently maintain the data-entry and
analytic capability necessary to provide quarterly reports. In
1992, NIOSH will assist the other states in standardizing reporting
fields and in providing for timely analysis of their data.
Reported by: B Harrell, MPA, Div of Epidemiology; CH Woernle, MD,
State Epidemiologist, Alabama Dept of Public Health. A Osorio, MD,
Occupational Health Surveillance and Evaluation Program, California
Dept of Health Svcs. N Tolentino, MPH, Connecticut State Dept of
Health Svcs. M Lehnherr, Occupational Disease Registry; H Howe,
PhD, Div of Epidemiologic Studies, Illinois Dept of Public Health.
K Choquette, MS, R Currier, DVM, State Epidemiologist, Iowa Dept of
Public Health. E Coe, MPH, Health Registries Div, Maryland Dept of
the Environment. R Rabin, MSPH, Div of Occupational Hygiene,
Massachusetts Dept of Labor and Industries. B Gerwel, MD,
Occupational Disease Prevention Program, New Jersey State Dept of
Health. R Stone, PhD, New York State Dept of Health. M Barnett, MS,
JE Gordon, PhD, Environmental Epidemiologist, State Health Div,
Oregon Dept of Human Resources. T Willis, DM Perrotta, PhD,
Environmental Epidemiologist, Texas Dept of Health. L Hanrahan, MS,
Wisconsin Dept of Health and Social Svcs. Div of Surveillance,
Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies, National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, CDC.
References
Rabin R, Davis L, Brooks D. Lead at work: elevated blood lead
levels in Massachusetts, April-October 1991. Boston: Occupational
Lead Registry, Division of Occupational Hygiene, Massachusetts
Department of Labor and Industries, and Occupational Health
Surveillance Program, Bureau of Statistics, Research and
Evaluation, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 1992.
CDC. Surveillance of elevated blood lead levels among adults --
United States, 1992. MMWR 1992;41:285-8.
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML documents published before January 1993 are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.
