1 In 10 Alaskan Workers Have Lead Levels In Blood Considered "Unhealthy" By CDC - ADN

[hatrack]

Roughly one in 10 Alaska workers tested for lead in their blood in recent years -- mostly because they worked around it -- had an amount that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers unhealthy.

State health epidemiologists are concerned that the overall trend of exposures to the toxic metal in Alaska workers between 1995 and 2006 didn't follow the decline occurring at the national level. Doctors and labs provided lead test results from 2,710 workers to the state Department of Health during that period. Most of the workers did not exceed the CDC's health criteria for lead. Of the 308 workers who did, more than 90 percent of them were employed in the mining industry, according to state health officials.

The Alaska workers had a lower rate of severe lead exposures but a higher annual rate of moderately high exposures when compared to workers tested in a national lead survey.

These findings were published recently by the state Department of Health and Social Services, which has been tracking lead levels in Alaskans since 1995.

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http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/333066.html