J Korean Med Sci.  2016 Apr;31(4):497-501. 10.3346/jkms.2016.31.4.497.

Occupational Lead Exposure from Indoor Firing Ranges in Korea

• Park WJ
• Lee SH
• Lee SH
• Yoon HS
• Moon JD

• KMID: 2363686
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2016.31.4.497

Abstract

Military personnel often use ammunitions that contain lead. The present study aimed to identify the risks for lead exposure and lead poisoning among workers at indoor firing ranges. A special health examination, including blood lead level (BLL) testing, was performed for all 120 workers at the indoor firing ranges of the Republic of Korea's Air Force, Navy, and Armed Forces Athletic Corps. The overall mean BLL was 11.3 ± 9.4 µg/dL (range: 2.0-64.0 µg/dL). The arithmetic mean of the BLL for professional shooters belong to Armed Forces Athletic Corps was 14.0 ± 8.3 µg/dL, while those of shooting range managers and shooting range supervisors were 13.8 ± 11.1 µg/dL and 6.4 ± 3.1 µg/dL, respectively. One individual had a BLL of 64 µg/dL, and ultimately completed chelation treatment (with CaNa2-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) without any adverse effects. These findings indicate that indoor firing range workers are exposed to elevated levels of lead. Therefore, when constructing an indoor firing range, a specialist should be engaged to design and assess the ventilation system; and safety guidelines regarding ammunition and waste handling must be mandatory. Moreover, workplace environmental monitoring should be implemented for indoor firing ranges, and the workers should undergo regularly scheduled special health examinations.

Keyword

Firearms; Heavy Metal Poisoning; Korea; Lead Poisoning; Military Personnel

MeSH Terms

Adult
Air Pollutants/*blood
Air Pollution, Indoor
Drinking
Edetic Acid/chemistry
Female
Firearms
Humans
Lead/*blood/chemistry
Male
Military Personnel
Occupational Exposure/*analysis
Odds Ratio
Republic of Korea
Risk Factors
Spectrophotometry, Atomic
Young Adult
Air Pollutants
Edetic Acid
Lead

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Workplace environmental monitoring results from indoor firing ranges. TWA, time weighted average. *Results are presented as the mean (range). †Results are presented as (number of standard excess sites)/(number of monitoring sites) (%). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard for lead exposure is 0.05 mg/m3 of air, averaged over an 8 hours period.

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  Fig. 2 Distribution of blood lead levels according to job type and rank. CO, commissioned officer; ES, enlisted soldier; NO, non-commissioned officer. *Comparison by analysis of variance. †Results are presented as the arithmetic mean ± standard deviation (range).

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  Fig. 3 Geometric means of blood lead levels from Korean lead workers, general population and this study’s subjects.

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