Abstract

FONSECA VERA., Adriana Ivette. Diseases due to occupational exposure to lead: systematic scoping review of qualitative and quantitative evidence. Revista San Gregorio [online]. 2021, vol.1, n.47, pp.195-216. ISSN 2528-7907.  https://doi.org/10.36097/rsan.v1i47.1817.

Lead poisoning is limited to the workplace and the environment; generating high morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis is one of exclusion and often late, even leading to errors of presumption of diagnosis; justifying the need to carry out this systematic scoping review, which aimed to: synthesize the qualitative and quantitative evidence, referring to occupational sources of contamination and clinical manifestations and/or diseases due to occupational exposure to lead. A search was performed in five electronic databases, to identify literature eligible published in the period 2016 - 2020. Sixty articles were included, of which 47 studies indicated the occupational source of lead contamination; highlighting the following areas: lead battery manufacturing (21,28%), shooting ranges (14,89%), automotive mechanics (14,89%) and construction (14,89%). Forty articles reported clinical manifestations and/or diseases due to occupational exposure to lead. Of these articles, the majority mentioned neurological (21,88%), hematological (12,5%), digestive (10,94%) and psychiatric (10,94%) alterations. Finally, it is concluded that occupational sources of lead contamination are broad and encompass those industries in which lead or its compounds are handled. The clinical manifestations and/or diseases due to occupational exposure to lead include a broad spectrum, with no evidence of a “safe” threshold for lead concentration.

Keywords : Occupational lead poisoning; saturnism.

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