Assessment of blood lead and haemoglobin levels among battery technicians and local government office workers in South-western Nigeria

Introduction: Human exposure to lead has significant public health problems. Occupational exposure of lead has shifted from industrial sources to battery repair activities. Battery technicians are at risk of exposure to lead via inhalation of  fumes, oral ingestion and skin absorption.  
Objectives: To assess and compare blood lead and haemoglobin levels of battery technicians and local government office workers in South-western Nigeria
Methods: A cross-sectional study with multi-stage sampling was used to compare battery technicians and office workers in Lagos State. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection while blood samples were collected for lead and haemoglobin measurements. Chi-squared test, Mann-Whitney U test, Fisher’s exact test and Student t-test were used to test for significance at p≤0.05.
Results: A total of 150 battery technicians and 150 office workers participated in the study. The battery technicians were less educated and earned less but had more years of working experience (p≤0.001) when compared to office workers. The median (range) blood lead value for battery workers was 9.0 (1.0-24.0) μg/dl compared to office workers 0.3 (0.01-3.2) μg/dl, which was statistically significant. The age of office workers was associated with their blood haemoglobin level.  
Conclusions & Recommendations: Blood lead level of battery technicians was significantly higher than that of the office workers but their haemoglobin levels were non-significant. A switch to repair of non-lead batteries, changing the work process by enclosing the battery during repairs, more trainings on lead exposure reduction, use of personal protective devices and regular biological monitoring of lead may control elevated lead level among battery technicians.