Research Article Blood Lead Levels among Blood Donors and High-Risk OccupationalGroupsinaMiningAreainGhana:Implicationsfor Blood Transfusion among Vulnerable Populations Veronica Agyemang , 1 Joseph K. Acquaye, 2 SamuelB.E.Harrison , 1 FelixB.Oppong, 1 Stephany Gyaase, 1 Kwaku P. Asante , 1 and Edeghonghon Olayemi 2 1 Kintampo Health Research Centre, Kintampo, Ghana 2 Department of Haematology, University of Ghana Medical School, Korle Bu, Accra, Ghana Correspondence should be addressed to Edeghonghon Olayemi; eolayemi@ug.edu.gh Received 25 September 2019; Revised 17 March 2020; Accepted 21 May 2020; Published 10 July 2020 Academic Editor: Jean-Paul J. Gonzalez Copyright © 2020 Veronica Agyemang et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Lead poisoning has been a major global health problem for decades, and blood transfusion has been suspected as a neglected potential source of lead exposure. Children and pregnant women are most vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead and over 40 percent of blood transfused in Ghana is given to children under 5 years. However, there is little data on the levels of lead in donor blood and the main sources of lead exposure in the Ghanaian population. is study compared blood lead levels (BLL) among selected occupations at risk of lead exposure with healthy blood donors in nonexposed occupations in a Ghanaian mining area. We enrolled 40 participants each from the following high-risk occupational groups: small scale miners, painters/sprayers, drivers/ fuel station attendants, and auto-mechanics as well as 40 healthy blood donors (made up of teachers, traders, and office workers). One millilitre of blood was collected from each participant for determination of their BLL, haemoglobin concentration, and blood film morphology. A total of 200 participants made up of 186 (93%) males and 14 (7%) females were enrolled. e mean age of participants was 28.6 ± 8.2 years and their geometric mean (GM) BLL was 6.3 GSD 1.4 µg/dL [95% CI: 6.0 – 6.6]. Participants in high risk occupations had significantly higher GM BLL of 6.7 µg/dL [95% CI :6.4− 7.0] compared to 5.0 µg/dL [95% CI: 4.4− 5.7] for healthy blood donors [p < 0.001]. e prevalence of elevated BLL (≥5 µg/dL) among the entire study participants, high risk occupations and blood donors was 84.5%, 89.4% and 65% respectively. ere was significant association between elevated BLLs and working in an at-risk occupational group [aOR = 3.58, p =0.014]. Haemoglobin concentration was not significantly associated with elevated BLLs. Basophilic stippling was not observed in any of the blood smears. Blood lead levels were high in blood donors and at-risk occupations in the study area and occupation was associated with elevated BLLs. It is important that measures to safeguard the integrity of donor blood go beyond screening for infectious diseases to include screening individuals in high-risk occupations for lead and other heavy metals to ensure that donor blood from such individuals is safe and does not pose potential danger to the health of vulnerable populations such as children and pregnant women. 1.Introduction Globally, lead poisoning is a major public health challenge, and work-related exposure to lead is an important source of lead poisoning in adults [1]. e various uses of lead led to widespread environmental contamination and human exposure in various parts of the world. Exposure to lead may occur via inhalation of lead particles, consumption of food or water contaminated with lead, and through direct skin contact with contaminated objects [2, 3]. Vital sources of lead ex- posure in the environment include vehicle assembly plants, mining activities, battery recycling activities, manufacturing, Hindawi Journal of Tropical Medicine Volume 2020, Article ID 6718985, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6718985