The Effects of Blood Lead on Blood Pressure Among Non-smokers

The National Emergency Medical Center, National Medical Center, Daegu, Korea*Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, Texas, USA**Graduate School of Public Health & Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea***Department of Preventive Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon and Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Haeundae Paik Hosiptal, Inje University, Pusan, Korea****Department of Health, Environment and Safety, Eulji University, Seongnam, Korea*****Department of Visual Optics and Graduate School of Health Sciences, Far East University, Chungbuk, Korea ABSTRACTObjective: The effect of lead on blood pressure remains controversial in spite of the numerous studies whichhave been conducted in the recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of exposure to leadon blood pressure among non-smokers.Methods: In this cross sectional study, 1416 male and female non-smokers were enrolled, aged 20 years or older,from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008. Blood pressure, blood lead levels(BLLs), height, weight, and cotinine level were measured for all subjects.Results: Geometric mean BLLs of the participants was 2.20 µg/dl. BLLs were higher in the older, male, andlower education groups than the younger, female and higher education groups. After adjusting for age, sex,education and BMI through multiple regression analysis, a significant positive association between systolic bloodpressure (p = 0.0357), diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.0111) and BLLs. Also, among the normal BMI group (18.5kg/m