A battery manufacturing plant is one of the leading sources
of occupational lead poisoning in Thailand. Assembly
sections especially have a higher risk than other sections in
the battery manufacturing plant to bring workers into contact
with lead from materials containing lead. From the data of
our previous report1), the airborne lead level (area sampling)
of the assembly section was between 0.156–2.617 mg/m3
(the standard level of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare
of Thailand 0.20 mg/m3
) in the years from 1999 to 2002.
Geometric average of blood lead level was between 32.3–
39.3 µg/dl in the years from 1998 to 2002. Workers at the
assembly section had worked in contact with lead. They
had lacked knowledge and /or understanding about the
toxicity of lead and the protection against it. Many of them
had used cotton masks as personal protective equipment,
and some of them had used no mask. Thus, we suggested
training or occupational health education to workers and
managers focusing on knowledge, awareness and
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT IN A THAI BATTERY PLANT 441
demonstration for reducing blood lead level effectively.
The objective of this research was to clarify effectiveness
of occupational health education to workers and managers,
and their collaboration with each other against reducing the
risk of lead poisoning of workers in a battery manufacturing
plant in Thailand. We sought to let the workers and the
managers gain the knowledge and understand the toxicity
of lead and the protection against it, and to collaborate with
them for reducing blood lead level of the workers.