Occupational
The association between combined exposure to lead and cadmium and gamma glutamyl transferase Shinhee Ye* Shinhee Ye Woojoo Lee Kyung-Eun Lee Sang Gil Lee Jung-Min Sung
Objectives: It is necessary to identify the association between combined exposure and workers’ health. This study was carried out to examine the association between combined exposure to lead and cadmium and liver function tests (AST, ALT, and GGT).
Methods: This study utilized special health examination data for Korean workers exposed to harmful substances, data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), and data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The health effects of single exposures were analyzed using generalized estimating equations (GEE) or multivariate linear regression. The health effects of combined exposures were analyzed using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). All models were adjusted for age, sex, company size (or family income), alcohol consumption habits, smoking status, and body mass index (BMI).
Results: In all analyses, an increase in GGT was consistently associated with an increase in combined exposures to lead and cadmium. In these analyses, the interaction between lead and cadmium was also consistently observed.
Conclusions: We suggest that workers exposed to both lead and cadmium should mitigate the exposure and need to undergo liver function tests in special health examinations.