Abstract

Lead is one of the most toxic heavy metals and its occupational exposure can generate plumbemia. For this reason, the objective of this investigation was to generate a baseline of lead concentrations in the blood of a group of battery factory workers in Guayaquil-Ecuador and of a control group not exposed to the metal at work, to establish the existence of occupational risk between sexes, ages, and jobs positions. For this, blood samples were taken from the workers and the control group. The samples were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry with a graphite furnace. 100 % of the workers presented Pb in an average concentration of 16.22 ± 6.82 µg / dL higher than the World Health Organization value, but lower than the limit established by Occupational Health and Safety Assessment of 40 µg / dL, also, the value was higher than of the control group (0.68 ± 0.15 µg / dL). Men presented higher levels of Pb than women and these values ​​varied depending on the job in the factory. In conclusion, 4.55 % of the workers did not present a risk of lead poisoning, 13.64 % low risk, 78.79 % medium risk, and only 3.00 % high risk.