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Trong-Neng Wu, PhD; Guang-Yang Yang, MD, DrPH; Chen-Yang Shen, PhD; Po-Ya Chang, MD, PhD
Ministry of Health Taipei, Taiwan

JAMA. 1994;272(17):1328.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—A system for surveillance of elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) in workers in Taiwan has begun to operate. By law, more than 4500 lead-using workers in Taiwan are included in this system. They are required to have their BLL checked every 6 months. All the test results from these laboratories are transferred to the Disease Surveillance Center in Taiwan. The Disease Surveillance Center conducts long-term follow-up to monitor changes in BLL in workers, and enrolls all workers whose BLL exceeds regulation levels (defined as 1.93 µmol/L [40 µg/dL] for men and 1.45 µmol/L [30 µg/dL] for women).

Since this surveillance system began operating in July 1993, we have found 445 workers (15% prevalence among 2905 lead-using workers) whose BLL exceeds these regulation levels. About 5% to 10% of these workers with high BLLs had a history of regular blood donation (one person whose BLL exceeded 3.86 µmol/L . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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