Atmospheric lead and the related blood-levels of workers in high-speed can-making

Any lead in the atmosphere around high-speed can-making lines consists wholly of solid particulate lead metal or lead oxidation products. The working temperature is below the boiling-point of lead, and so none of it is the result of condensation of lead vapor. Level of lead in blood does not appear to be related to the level of total lead in atmosphere or with the worker's proximity to the can-line. There may however perhaps be some relation between blood-lead level and the atmospheric concentration of the respirable part of the lead in the air breathed; investigation is therefore now directed into comparing blood-lead level with atmospheric lead-level measured by analytical procedures which select the particle-size of the sample taken. The paper presents an interim report, with data, on results so far obtained. The whole research program will study the individual operations of can-making.