BLOOD LEAD AND CADMIUM IN A GENERAL-POPULATION IN JINAN-CITY, CHINA

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.