[Morbidity among workers exposed to lead--review of epidemiological studies]

The paper presents a review of morality studies for workers occupationally exposed to lead. The authors highlighted the limitations which most of the reviewed analyses suffer from and which are due mainly to incomplete characteristics of the exposure in question. As follows from the results of morality studies carried out so far, lead-exposed workers are subject to an increased risk of death from stomach and lung cancer, though the epidemiologic evidence for the latter is not quite explicit. The single reports on the risk of cerebrovascular diseases probably concerns only the high-level exposure. Relatively best documented is the death risk due to nephritis. The authors believe that further research is necessary in order to evaluate delayed health effects of chronic exposure to lead.