Evaluation of lead, cadmium, copper and zinc levels and studying their toxic effect in sera of private electrical generator workers

According to the electricity crisis in Iraq since 1991, private electrical generators have installed randomly in nearly every neighbourhoods of all Iraqi cities. This represents a dangerous and uncontrollable environment that may lead to an environmental disaster. The aim of this work is to assess the serum levels of certain elements including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), Zinc (Zn) and Copper (Cu) and their health effect. This study included individuals working with electrical generators (n=60) and healthy (n=60) as control group, their ages ranged from 18 to 45 years. The obtained results indicate a significant increase (p <0.01) in the Pb, Cd, Cu levels and Cu/Zn ratio, in contrast to the significant decrease in the Zn level of the workers who exposed to the generator's diesel exhaust fumes compared to the control group. A number of health issues such as allergies, shortness of breath, eye irritation, colds and some other respiratory problems were also recorded for exposed workers. From these results it can be concluded that direct exposure to the exhaust fumes of private generators could lead to heavy metals poisoning, especially Pb and Cd, which can lead to serious health consequences in particularly, the workers with long-term exposure. In addition, it can lead to an increased oxidative stress disorders that caused by disturbances in Cu and Zn levels.