THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING ON THE BLOOD LEAD LEVELS IN THE HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS AND HEALTHY SUBJECTS

// was aimed to determine the effects of smoking on the blood lead levels in the patients with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis (HD) and healthy subjects. This descriptive study included 21 HD patients (14 male and 7 female) treated in HD Center, Medical Faculty of Dicle University and 21 healthy subjects (12 male and 9 female). The blood lead levels of both groups were analysed by age, gender, settlement and smoking status. Blood lead levels were measured by AAS (Unicam 929). Patients were ranged between 18-67 years with a mean of 4615 years and healthy subjects were ranged between 21-70 years with a mean of 4417 years. Healthy subjects (2 7.8± 17.8 g/dl) had significantly higher mean blood lead levels than HD patients (15.114.8 g/dl) (p<0.05). A non-negligible percentage of the HD population (14.3%) had values over 30 micrograms/dl, the threshold for risk in occupational exposure, and 9.5% over 40 micrograms/dl, which reflects lead intoxication. The main factor affecting blood lead levels in HD patients was smoking. Both heavy smokers and daily smokers had significantly higher blood lead levels than other smoking and nonsmoker groups (p<0.01). In healthy subjects, blood lead levels were affected by settlement (living in a big city) and smoking (p<0.05). Especially, heavy smoking leads up to increased blood lead levels (p<0.05). As a result, CRF have not facilitated lead accumulation in blood. It was determined that heavy smoking in both HD patients and healthy subjects has significantly increased blood lead levels.