Health, social and child labour problems of an Alexandrian poor urban community

Child labour is one of the most important and difficult problems resulting from unchecked rapid urbanization. More than 100 million children all over the world are engaged in heavy and hazardous employment against international conventions. The problem of child labour in poor urban communities, often present in Alexandria was studied in the present work by interviewing forty four families from Kom El Nadoura sub-district to reveal the problem features, as well as to study the socio-demographic profile of the studied community and to find the prevailing health problems among the studied children. Twelve percent of the studied children were working either occasionally [n=15] or permanently [n=6] one family every two had a working child. All working were obliged to work either for economic reasons or to help their parents in their work. About half of the working children were employed in food processing industry, much prevalent in the studied area and fortunately with minimal exposure hazard, while about one third were exposed to chemical hazards either in car repair or chemical workshops. Social, educational and health problems were similar in families of working and non working children. Large scale studies are recommended to focus on this exacerbating problem in a trial to solve it properly

Neurological dysfunctions among workers exposed to inorganic lead

This study was carried out to detect the electroencephalographic [EEG] changes as well as its pattern and to study the relation between motor conduction and presence of EEG changes among workers exposed to inorganic lead. Twenty workers occupationally exposed to inorganic lead and another twenty workers not exposed to lead were chosen as index and control groups respectively. The following investigations were performed for both groups. haemoglobin [Hb], blood lead [BPb], urine delta aminolevulinic acid [ALA], motor nerve conduction velocity [MNCV] and distal latency [DL] of right radial nerve, and EEG. EEG chages were significantly more among exposed group [5 workers, 25%] than control group [0%]. Left temporal discharge was noticed among the five workers and generalized bilateral epileptic activity among only 2 of them. Among exposed group, no significant differences were seen between exposed workers with and those without EEG changes as regards all investigations. There were insignificant correlations between duration of exposure, BPb, urine ALA, MNCV and DL, and presence of EEG changes among exposed workers