National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

“ Samples of blood and urine collected from humans pose a real health risk to laboratory workers who collect and handle these samples. These risks are primarily due to personal contact with infective biological samples and can have serious health consequences, such as infectious hepatitis, and other diseases. There is also some risk from the chemical content of these samples, but this is much less. Those who handle blood and urine specimens should wear protective gloves, and avoid aerosolization of the samples. ”

“ For urine samples, report μg Pb/g creatinine. For blood samples, report μg Pb/g whole blood.
GUIDES TO INTERPRETATION: Blood lead concentrations for healthy adult suburbanites is 7 to 22 μg/100 g whole blood [2] . Urine has a wider range, 4 to 270 μg/g creatinine, for the same population; however, most normal values should be near 16 to 60 μg/g creatinine [4] . Blood lead values are commonly used for biological monitoring. A blood lead value above 40 μg/100 g is indicative of excess exposure and one above 60 μg/100 g requires removal from exposure [8] . ”

“ Maintain standardization by analyzing a standard after every 5 samples. 11. Run a spiked control or pooled sample from exposed workers or commercial control every 10 samples or at least 3 per study. NOTE: Blood or urine lead background levels must be determined before spiked controls are prepared. ”