White lead exposure among Danish police officers employed in fingerprint detection

White lead exposure among Danish police officers employed in fingerprint detection. Scand j work environ health 9 (1983) 511-513. White lead is often used by police officers employed in fingerprint detection (dactylography). On the basis of a case of mild lead intoxication in a police officer all 22 exposed police officers at the Bureau of Dactylographic Identification in Copenhagen were examined. All went through a clinical examination and blood lead determination. None of the participants showed any sign of lead intoxication. The median blood lead concentration was 0.97 mumol/l (10th-90th percentiles 0.72-1.44 mumol/l), a value definitely higher than the average of the general population matched for age and sex. A correlation between the weekly white lead exposure and blood lead concentration (r = 0.87, p less than 0.0001) was found among the participants.