Urinary excretion of total and inorganic lead in tetraethyllead exposed workers

Alkyl lead species, particularly tetraethyllead (TEL) have been used as antiknock agents in gasoline for more than 50 years through out the world. Then TEL was realized as a very toxic compound causing severe psychotic disorders and also as a main source of lead contamination in urban metropolitan areas. Thus, lead content in gasoline in USA declined sharply since 1975 and the western world followed this reduction a few years later. Although only lead free gasoline may/now be used as an automobile fuel in the USA, leaded gasoline is still used in many countries including Turkey. In Turkey lead content have been reduced to 0.15 g/l in normal gasoline and to 0.4 g/l in super gasoline after 1988. It is also planned to produce unleaded super gasoline beginning from 1998 and only one type of unleaded gasoline after 2003. Occupational exposure to TEL may occur during the production, transport and mixing of TEL with gasoline and by the cleaning procedure of leaded gasoline storage thanks. Motor mechanics who use gasoline to clean their hands may be particularly at risk especially in our country. These workers exposed to TEL extensively by skin penetration due to the excellent liposolubility of TEL. In Turkey there is no available data on the occupational TEL exposure, therefore we aimed to investigate the extent of TEL exposure in refinery workers, motor mechanics and gasoline station workers.