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Chronic work exposure to lead and risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

cmonforton | December 31, 2014

Individuals with chronic occupational exposure to lead have an 80 percent higher odds of developing Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) than individuals who do not have the exposure. Those are the findings of a recently published meta-analysis of 13 studies of individuals with “Lou Gehrig’s disease" (ALS). The authors, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada for its National Population Health Study of Neurological Disease in Canada, note: “Epidemiological studies investigating the association between prior exposure to lead and ALS began about five decades ago, after a series of ALS cases…