Association of Blood Lead Level with Thyroid Hormones and Blood Factors in Iranian Traffic Officers

Lead has many applications in the industry, but does not play a vital physiological role in the human body. On the other hand, lead has shown undesirable effects on the nervous, gastrointestinal, and endocrine systems, and people who are highly exposed to this element, due to their occupations or residencies, are affected by its harmful effects. Therefore, we designed a cross-sectional study on traffic officers with high exposure level to lead in Tehran, Iran, to specify the effect of lead on their levels of thyroid hormones and blood cells. The blood lead concentration was measured using Lead Analyzer and Flame Atomic Absorption spectrometry. The levels of thyroid hormones and blood cells were measured using KX-21N and ADVIA Centaur XPT (Immunoassay system) instruments, respectively. The obtained results demonstrated that there was no significant association between blood lead levels and levels of thyroid hormones, number of blood cells, and related blood cells parameters. However, there was a weak association between blood lead levels and the age of participants (r = 0.25). Further studies with higher sample size could confirm these results.