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Breaking the Lead Floor: Protecting Workers and Their Families



Details

  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Adverse health effects of high-level lead exposure have been known since antiquity. In recent decades, however, a solid body of evidence about the cardiovascular, renal, reproductive, developmental and neurologic health effects in adults that occur at progressively lower levels has emerged. In addition, both the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) have classified lead as a probable human carcinogen. Despite this, occupational exposure standards in the U.S., which were developed based on the science available 50 or 60 years ago, have not kept pace with new knowledge. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards for lead permit ongoing lead exposure for workers with blood lead levels (BLL) up to 50 or 60 µg/dL (depending on the calculation method) when airborne exposures are at or above the action level. The standards in the 22 State-Plans (OSHA-approved workplace safety and health programs operated by individual states or U.S. territories) typically adopt the Federal OSHA standards verbatim, and if different, rarely with any substantive modification. ... It is important that Federal OSHA and other State-Plan standards are amended to acknowledge what we know about the health effects of lead to better protect workers. Indeed, we join many in this country and elsewhere who have made the call previously for such change so as to spare workers and their families the toxic effects of lead exposure at work. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • ISSN:
    1076-2752
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Cooperative Agreement
  • Genre:
    Journal Article
  • Place as Subject:
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • Volume:
    63
  • Issue:
    1
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20066637
  • Citation:
    J Occup Environ Med 2021 Jan; 63(1):e44-e45
  • Contact Point Address:
    Anthony D. Burton, MD, 1610 Granger Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
  • Email:
    adburton@umich.edu
  • CAS Registry Number:
    Lead (CAS RN 7439-92-1)
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2021
  • Performing Organization:
    Michigan State University
  • Peer Reviewed:
    False
  • Start Date:
    20050701
  • Source Full Name:
    Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
  • End Date:
    20260630
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:67f066a0a35e10f7b08ae813a3c3bf23f85dbcc26e8c793a9bb932335d5d3fa9052b411f5ccef97eff86ca7a9dba123de7c4b508dd2a184c3929218b9580c331
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 97.61 KB ]
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