The lead concentration in whole blood were determined in 145 healthy young adults, 102 male and 43 female volunteers, aged from 16 to 25 years, who have had no apparent exposure to lead.
Determination of lead was made by means of standard addition method using flameless graphited atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Model A51OO, Baird Ltd.).
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1. In 145 measurements of lead in blood by standard addition method, correlation coefficients of optical density on lead concentration added ranged from 0.990 to 1.000 and regression coefficients ranged from 0.2000 to 0. 3859. Since the mean recovery rate of lead 0. 5, 1.5 and 2.5 ng added to samples was 98. 0 io, 101.7 %, 99.5 % with coefficient of variation of 10.4 %, 4.7 %, 1.7 %, respectively, the analytic method was found to be reliable with high precision.
2. Lead; contents in whole blood did not fitted to the normal distribution; instead fitted to the log-normal distribution.
3. The arithmatic mean of lead concentrations in normal human blood was 14. 86. 22 pg/lOO ml and the geometric mean was 14. 11. 36 pg/100 ml.
4. Mean concentrations of lead in whole blood were significantly higher in males than in females (p< 0. 01).
5. Lead levels in blood was higher among urban inhabitants than among rural inhabitants in female (p
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