Guidelines for Troubleshooting High Lead Exposure Problems in Indoor Firing Range

Details

• Personal Author:
  Khan A
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was contacted by a federal agency regarding concerns about potential lead exposures to its officers in its newly designed indoor firing range. NIOSH researchers investigated the lead exposure problems and narrow down the causes for the lead exposures in the range to two problems. Range overhead garage door was a major source of leakage into the facility, and the downrange airflow velocity at the firing line was inadequate. A smoke generation machine confirmed that lanes closest to the overhead door had more eddies and back-flow, causing turbulence near the shooters and flow of lead contaminated air back to the shooter. Upon the recommendation of NIOSH researchers, the overhead door was removed and the wall was completely sealed with concrete blocks. The airflow velocity measured at the firing line when the system was operating under maximum capacity was inadequate. NIOSH researchers recommended upgrading the ventilation of the range by replacing the existing 30HP with 50HP electrical motors. The air velocity measured at the firing line with the upgraded ventilation was found to be much higher-closer to the ideal velocity of 75 fpm as recommended in the NIOSH document "Lead Exposure and Design Considerations for Indoor Firing Ranges." This presentation will describe the problems, methods for evaluating the ventilation system, recommendations made and implemented, and results obtained after implementing the engineering solutions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Movements Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Dust Lead Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Ventilation Workplace
• Keywords:
  Air-contamination Air-flow Exposure-levels Lead-compounds Lead-dust Occupational-exposure Ventilation-systems Work-environment Workers Workplace-studies
• Publisher:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  65-66
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022861
• Citation:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, May 10-15, 2003, Dallas, Texas. Fairfax, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2003 May; :65-66
• CAS Registry Number:
  Lead (CAS RN 7439-92-1)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, May 10-15, 2003, Dallas, Texas
• End Date:
  20060930
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ef9567ceac0e1d6dcf68ead428af44b62c794fa9c97545818a4d99d8f8a5d3c21b09ed42227b26b1aeaeb8aad67a60d4f69ff96a988045d617bb011a1542e6df
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199492/cdc_199492_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 816.47 KB ]