Zinc-Protoporphyrin Metabolite Level Affected by Work Environment Stresses

The presence of Zinc-protoporphyrin (ZPP) in a patient\´s blood sample suggests: Iron depletion, unacceptable rate of iron delivery to bone marrow, and/or led toxicity in the patient. Therefore, existing of traceable amount of ZPP in a patient\´s blood causes gradual catastrophic health problems for the patient. Do the stresses in a work environment contribute to the presence of ZPP in workers\´ blood? In this paper, we investigate the answer to the proposed question in reference to the blue color workers of an aluminum factory. The workers are exposed to a spectrum of the stresses. The "bad body posture" is in one end of the spectrum and "exposure to magnetic field" is at the other end and a variety of stresses such as exposure to noise, gas, fume, extreme heat/cold, vibration, radiation, and allergens are in between. The goal of this investigation is two-fold: (a) introduction and utilization of the Soft Semantic Association Degrees (SSADs) approach for analysis of the relationship between work environment stresses and ZPP behavior and (b) identification of the conditions under which the workers can be relatively safe.