![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.png)
BACKGROUND: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) established the Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance (ABLES) program in 1987 to monitor occupational lead exposure. NIOSH provides guidance, technical support, and funding to state health departments to build and maintain lead exposure surveillance capacity. In 2013, the Wyoming Lead and Radon Program set out to examine the ABLES data collected in the state to understand the persons, places, and time of lead exposure in Wyoming residents. Additionally, the program would like to examine base levels of lead exposure in Wyoming communities.
METHODS: A descriptive epidemiologic study was conducted using Wyoming ABLES data from 2009-2013. BLL reporting requirements vary among ABLES states, ranging from the reporting of all blood lead levels (BLLs) to BLLs ≥40 µg/dL. Most state ABLES programs submit data on all BLLs to NIOSH, including reports from persons whose BLLs fall below the state reporting requirement. Wyoming collects BLL data on all tests and so the analysis was not restricted to only very high BLLs (BLL > 40 µg/dL). Data analysis was conducted by the chronic disease epidemiologist using SPSS 16.0 for Windows software.
RESULTS: Results of the descriptive epidemiologic analysis were not terribly surprising in some respects as the individuals who were tested were mainly White, non-Hispanic males. The two largest counties also accounted for the most testing. However, only two counties (Laramie & Natrona) had any tests where the BLL levels were > 40 µg/dL. Additionally, seven of the ten tests of > 40 µg/dL came from a single occupation. However, the average BLL jumped from an average level of 3.77 µg/dL in 2012 to 4.45 µg/dL in 2013, even though there were more tests in 2013 than in 2012.
CONCLUSIONS: While there are relatively few tests conducted in Wyoming that exceed 40 µg/dL it is surprising to see a jump of almost 20% in the mean BLL from 2012 to 2013. While previous years have fluctuated between an average BLL of 3.31 to 3.97 µg/dL it has never increased or decreased more than 15% between years. While 4.45 µg/dL is still under the NIOSH reference blood lead level of 10 µg/dL for adults it will be interesting to further examine where this increase occurred and if it was work related.