Conference paper
Study of air and population lead levels in Japan
K. Tsuchiya
; School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
A report claming that an outbreak of lead poisoning had occurred among inhabitants of an area in Tokyo with heavy vehicular traffic aroused immense public concern. In order to provide evidence that there is no reason for such concern an extensive study into the relationship between lead in air and its biological effects on Tokyo inhabitants has been carried out. The paper also reports on other less extensive studies in Japan on the same topic. These studies carried out on 3500 Tokyo inhabitants, on 100 inhabitants of the Fukuoka city and on 56 residents of Okinawa gave results similar to the major study. About 2300 policemen were examined for hematocrit, red corpuscle count, hemoglobin, blood lead level, urine lead level and delta-aminolevulinic acid (AiLA) in urine, and interviewed about smoking, drinking and drug practices. The concentration of lead in air was monitored at ten sampling stations in Tokyo and one on an offshore Japanese island in the Pacific. The overal mean atmospheric lead concentration was 0.65 µg/m3. The means of blood lead levels were from 16.8-8.7 µg/100 ml depending on the areas of employment and residence, The mean lead levels in urine were 7.8-12.2 µg/l. Except for the pollution originating from a fixed source of lead there is no evidence in Japan that lead in the atmosphere would affect biological responses !in human, particularly blood lead levels.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
167371
URI
Publication date:
6.4.1976.
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