, 2003; Nriagu et al., 2003Barbosa et al., 2006, Costa de Almeida et al., 2009, Thaweboon et al., 2005 and Morton et al., 2014). Past studies have also produced very different results when comparing lead levels in blood and saliva. The saliva lead: blood lead ratio has varied from <1% (Barbosa et al., 2006) up to 271% P’an AYS, 1981. The correlation reported between saliva lead and blood lead has also varied: P’an AYS, 1981 and Morton et al. (2014) reported good correlations (r = 0.80 and r = 0.69 respectively) between log(blood lead) and log(saliva lead), Koh et al.

(2003) reported a weaker correlation (r = 0.41) between log(saliva lead) and blood lead, whereas others have reported poorer correlations ( Barbosa

et al., 2006, Nriagu et al., 2006 and Thaweboon et al., 2005). In HDAC inhibitor this study, paired samples of whole blood and saliva were collected from UK workers occupationally exposed to inorganic lead, as part of their routine biological monitoring schedule. The authors present a novel method for the collection and preparation of saliva for analysis, using a StatSure (StatSure Diagnostics Systems, Inc., New York, USA) saliva collection device and incorporating a nitric acid digestion preparation step, prior to dilution with an acid diluent. Whole blood was collected by venepuncture and diluted with an alkaline diluent. Analyses of both matrices for lead were carried out by inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The recovery of lead from a 10 μg/L spiked saliva sample using the StatSure device was Erastin purchase evaluated, and components of the device tested individually for any lead emanating from

them. The correlation between blood lead and saliva lead measurements in an occupationally-exposed cohort was calculated, and multiple regression analyses carried out to explore whether this relationship was affected by age, smoking status or the history of previous lead exposure. This study determines lead levels in paired blood and saliva samples from from a cohort of 105 UK workers routinely monitored for occupational exposure to inorganic lead. The study was approved by the National Research Ethics Service Committee East Midlands – Nottingham 1 (12/EM/0217). Consenting workers were asked to provide a saliva sample at the same time as their routine blood sample. Descriptive statistics of the sample cohort are provided in Table 1. Saliva samples were collected using the StatSure sampling device (Fig. 1). The mouth was not rinsed prior to sampling. The collector paddle was positioned under the tongue until the indicator at the opposite end turned blue (as per the manufacturer’s guidelines). This indicates that a volume of at least 1 mL of saliva has been collected by the device.