Mir Hassan Khan, Tanveer Hussain, Shahida Zakir, Said Hassan Khan.
Blood lead levels and occupational hazards in child labor in Peshawar.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;45(2):46-8.

Objectives: To determine blood lead level, calcium and haemoglobin in children involved in auto labour at Peshawar. Methods: A total of 150 children; 30 control and 120 working in auto-mobile workshops for 8-10 hours daily with out any safety measures, were investigated. Results: We observed that low-income families generally encouraged their children to learn some professional skills at early age. Besides, the nature of work in automobile workshops was hazardous and the long working hours were stressful for the children. Eighty Seven percent of the children were not willing to do the job and 100% were un-aware of the safety measure. As compared to controls, the subject group have had high blood lead levels with a mean ± 42.4 µg/dl (p<0.001); low haemoglobin ± 11.2 g/dl (p<0.01) and decreased calcium ± 8.6 mg/dl (P<0.01) concentration. Furthermore, the younger age group had comparatively raised lead level than old age group. Sixty eight percent children of the study group have had abnormalities like headaches, raised hearing threshold, memory loss and generalized body pain. Conclusion: It is concluded that the high level of blood lead affects the health of children; and poor children specially are at more risk because of inadequate nutrition. Besides, the present study suggests the need of awareness, implementation of laws for child`s rights, effective family planning facilities and finally various organizations should play an effective role in child labour prevention programmes.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com