Jb. Qu et al., BLOOD LEAD AND CADMIUM IN A GENERAL-POPULATION IN JINAN-CITY, CHINA, International archives of occupational and environmental health, 65(1), 1993, pp. 190000201-190000204
In 1991, blood samples were obtained from 150 adult Jinan citizens (74
men and 76 women at the ages of 20 to 57 years) who had no known occu
pational exposure to heavy metals. Age, sex, two social habits of smok
ing and drinking (in terms of daily consumption) and negative occupati
onal history were examined in a medical interview. The samples were an
alyzed for lead (Pb-B) and cadmium (Cd-B) with a flame atomic absorpti
on spectrometer. The geometric mean (GM) Pb-B and Cd-B were 92.3 and 0
.94 mug/l, respectively, among 39 nonsmoking men, whereas the counterp
art values were 123.4 mug/l and 2.61 mug/l among 35 smoking men (mean
consumption; >15 cigarettes/day); the difference was significant both
for Pb-B and Cd-B. Comparison between 39 male and 76 female nonsmokers
showed that Pb-B was significantly higher in men (92.3 mug/l) than in
women (71.6 mug/l, whereas the difference in Cd-B (0.94 mug/l) for me
n versus 0.83 mug/l for women) was insignificant. When the women were
classified by decade of age and Cd-B were compared, there was a trend
of age increase in Cd-B from 0.60 mug/l in 20s to 1.24 mug/l in 40s, f
ollowed by no further increase at higher ages. Age-dependent changes w
ere not remarkable in Pb-B in women, or Cd-B and Pb-B in men. No signi
ficant time-dependent changes were observed when the present results w
ere compared with the results from two similar studies conducted in 19
83 and 1985, respectively.