TABLE 2.

Spearman’s correlations between age, body mass index (BMI), alcohol consumption, smoking, working time, blood and plasma lead levels (BLL and PLL, respectively), % DNA global methylation (% 5-mC), and expression of miR-148a.

	Age	BMI	Alcohol	Smoking	BLL	PLL	% 5-mC	miR-148a
Agea	–
BMIb	0.28*	–
Alcoholc	0.12	0.12	–
Smokingd	0.018	0.085	0.069	–
BLLe	−0.087	−0.21	0.016	−0.021	–
PLLe	−0.039	−0.21	−0.061	0.080	0.86**	–
% 5-mCf	−0.10	0.10	0.022	0.039	−0.050	−0.086	–
miR-148ag	−0.062	−0.031	0.069	0.053	0.070	0.053	−0.099	–

^ayears; ^bkg (m²)^–1; ^Cno alcohol consumption was taken as reference; ^dnon-smokers were taken as reference; ^eμg dl^–1; ^f% of methylcytosine in genomic DNA; ^grelative expression of miR-148a. *p < 0.050; **p < 0.010.