Job Exposure to Lead Linked to Lou Gehrig's Disease

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Job Exposure to Lead Linked to Lou Gehrig's Disease

Thu May 9, 1:31 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with a history of on-the-job exposure to

the heavy metal lead may be at twice the risk of developing amyotrophic

lateral sclerosis (ALS), which strikes about 1 or 2 in every 100,000 people

in the United States. ALS is often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease

(news - web sites), after the famed New York Yankees baseball player who

died from the disease in 1941 at the age of 38.

Previous research has suggested a possible association between exposure to

heavy metals, particularly lead, and ALS, but a true cause-and-effect

relationship remains unclear, according to Dr. Freya Kamel of the National

Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North

Carolina, and colleagues.

To investigate, Kamel and her team evaluated lead exposure in 109 patients

diagnosed with ALS and 256 healthy individuals. All study participants

completed extensive questionnaires that assessed lead exposure and lifestyle

habits, such as smoking, sleeping, eating and alcohol consumption.

The researchers report their findings in the May issue of the journal

Epidemiology.

While Kamel and colleagues found that self-reported occupational lead

exposure increased a person's risk of ALS by 1.9 times, residential or

recreational exposure to lead was not associated with the illness.

Recreational activities involving possible lead exposure include hunting,

skeet shooting, fishing with lead weights, and ceramics.

More ALS patients than healthy people reported that they had been exposed to

lead fumes, dust or particles at work 10 or more times.

" Previous studies have suggested that lead exposure is associated with ALS,

and a role for lead in ALS pathophysiology is plausible. Thus, the

hypothesis that lead exposure plays a role in the (development) of ALS

deserves further consideration, " the authors conclude.

SOURCE: Epidemiology 2002;13:311-319.