Lead in Construction: Hazard Alert

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Description:
  Old paint on metal bridges, process equipment, and buildings may contain lead. Construction workers are exposed to lead when metal structures are torn down, renovated, or repainted. When metal covered with lead paint is cut, sanded, heated, burned, or blasted with abrasives, lead gets into the air. Anyone near such work can get lead poisoning. The Hazards: Lead is toxic if you breathe or swallow it. It can cause severe anemia and prevent your producing healthy children. It can damage your kidneys, brain, and nervous system, too. The first signs of severe poisoning may be upset stomach (or cramps), weakness, joint pain, and/or being tired. (But lead can harm you even if you don't show these symptoms at first.) Protect Yourself: If you are stripping, sanding, heating, cutting, or otherwise disturbing a painted surface, or you are near such work, ask your employer if the paint contains lead. The OSHA lead standard says your employer must train you if you could be exposed to lead. (The standard is 29 CFR 1926.62.) Until you are sure there is no lead, act as if the paint contains lead. If the paint has lead (or may have lead), follow your employer's special procedures for this work. OSHA and some states have special rules for work on lead-coated surfaces. OSHA says an employer must first use engineering and work practice controls to reduce or prevent lead exposures. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Construction Materials Dust Engineering Hazardous Substances Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Hematologic Tests Lead Lead Poisoning Metals Metal Workers Nervous System Nervous System Diseases Occupational Health Paint Poisoning Safety Safety Management Ships Urogenital Diseases Urogenital System Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Abrasive-blasting Abrasive-grinding Abrasives Blood-analysis Blood-sampling Brain-damage Construction Construction-equipment Construction-industry Construction-materials Construction-workers Demolition-industry Engineering-controls Hazardous-materials Kidney-damage Lead-absorption Lead-compounds Lead-dust Lead-fumes Lead-poisoning Lead-production Lead-smelting Medical-monitoring Metal-compounds Metal-dusts Metal-poisoning Metal-workers Metalworking Nervous-system-disorders Painters Paints Regulations Reproductive-hazards Safety-education Safety-measures Safety-practices Shipyard-workers Standards Toxic-dose Toxic-effects Toxic-materials Work-environment Work-practices Worker-health

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• Series:
  CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications
• Publisher:
  The Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  2 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20039465
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: The Center to Protect Workers' Rights, 2004 Dec; :1-2
• Contact Point Address:
  Building and Construction Trades Dept., AFL-CIO: CPWR, Suite 1000, 8484 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910
• CAS Registry Number:
  Lead (CAS RN 7439-92-1)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20040801
• Source Full Name:
  Lead in construction: hazard alert
• End Date:
  20090630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2aec9bf7b983b431fe05a7cc5b5ac83f7c273a94434f2431ef14348ada61917095bdb5513ec10574c90354dbd16b89861926f5d41ec502df363414458c3ad636
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213085/cdc_213085_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 31.27 KB ]