California Code of Regulations › Title 8 - Industrial Relations › Division 1 - Department of Industrial Relations › Chapter 4 - Division of Industrial Safety › Subchapter 4 - Construction Safety Orders › Article 4 - Dusts, Fumes, Mists, Vapors, and Gases › Appendix A to Section 1532.1 - Substance Data Sheet for Occupational Exposure to Lead

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
I. Substance Identification
A. Substance: Pure lead (Pb) is a heavy metal at room
						temperature and pressure and is a basic chemical element. It can combine with
						various other substances to form numerous lead compounds.
B. Compounds covered by the standard: The word "lead"
						when used in this standard means elemental lead, all inorganic lead compounds
						and a class of organic lead compounds called lead soaps. This standard does not
						apply to other organic lead compounds.
C. Uses: Exposure to lead occurs in several different
						occupations in the construction industry, including demolition or salvage of
						structures where lead or lead-containing materials are present; removal or
						encapsulation of lead-containing materials, new construction, alteration,
						repair, or renovation of structures that contain lead or materials containing
						lead; installation of products containing lead. In addition, there are
						construction related activities where exposure to lead may occur, including
						transportation, disposal, storage, or containment of lead or materials
						containing lead on construction sites, and maintenance operations associated
						with construction activities.
D. Permissible exposure: The permissible exposure limit
						(PEL) set by the standard is 50 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air (50
						[MICRO]g/m3) averaged over an 8-hour workday.
E. Action level: The standard establishes an action level
						of 30 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air (30
						[MICRO]g/m3) averaged over an 8-hour workday. The
						action level triggers several ancillary provisions of the standard such as
						exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, and training.
II. Health Hazard Data
A. Ways in which lead enters your body. When absorbed
						into your body in certain doses, lead is a toxic substance. The object of the
						lead standard is to prevent absorption of harmful quantities of lead. The
						standard is intended to protect you not only from the immediate toxic effects
						of lead, but also from the serious toxic effects that may not become apparent
						until years of exposure have passed. Lead can be absorbed into your body by
						inhalation (breathing) and ingestion (eating). Lead (except for certain organic
						lead compounds not covered by the standard, such as tetraethyl lead) is not
						absorbed through your skin. When lead is scattered in the air as a dust, fume
						or mist it can be inhaled and absorbed through your lungs and upper respiratory
						tract. Inhalation of airborne lead is generally the most important source of
						occupational lead absorption. You can also absorb lead through your digestive
						system if lead gets into your mouth and is swallowed. If you handle food,
						cigarettes, chewing tobacco, or make-up which have lead on them or handle them
						with hands contaminated with lead, this will contribute to ingestion. A
						significant portion of the lead that you inhale or ingest gets into your blood
						stream. Once in your blood stream, lead is circulated throughout your body and
						stored in various organs and body tissues. Some of this lead is quickly
						filtered out of your body and excreted, but some remains in the blood and other
						tissues. As exposure to lead continues, the amount stored in your body will
						increase if you are absorbing more lead than your body is excreting. Even
						though you may not be aware of any immediate symptoms of disease, this lead
						stored in your tissues can be slowly causing irreversible damage, first to
						individual cells, then to your organs and whole body systems.
B. Effects of overexposure to lead.
(1) Short term (acute) overexposure. Lead is a potent,
						systemic poison that serves no known useful function once absorbed by your
						body. Taken in large enough doses, lead can kill you in a matter of days. A
						condition affecting the brain called acute encephalopathy may arise which
						develops quickly to seizures, coma, and death from cardiorespiratory arrest. A
						short term dose of lead can lead to acute encephalopathy. Short term
						occupational exposures of this magnitude are highly unusual, but not
						impossible. Similar forms of encephalopathy may, however, arise from extended,
						chronic exposure to lower doses of lead. There is no sharp dividing line
						between rapidly developing acute effects of lead, and chronic effects which
						take longer to acquire. Lead adversely affects numerous body systems, and
						causes forms of health impairment and disease which arise after periods of
						exposure as short as days or as long as several years.
(2) Long-term (chronic) overexposure. Chronic
						overexposure to lead may result in severe damage to your blood-forming,
						nervous, urinary and reproductive systems. Some common symptoms of chronic
						overexposure include loss of appetite, metallic taste in the mouth, anxiety,
						constipation, nausea, pallor, excessive tiredness, weakness, insomnia,
						headache, nervous irritability, muscle and joint pain or soreness, fine
						tremors, numbness, dizziness, hyperactivity and colic. In lead colic there may
						be severe abdominal pain. Damage to the central nervous system in general and
						the brain (encephalopathy) in particular is one of the most severe forms of
						lead poisoning. The most severe, often fatal, form of encephalopathy may be
						preceded by vomiting, a feeling of dullness progressing to drowsiness and
						stupor, poor memory, restlessness, irritability, tremor, and convulsions. It
						may arise suddenly with the onset of seizures, followed by coma, and death.
						There is a tendency for muscular weakness to develop at the same time. This
						weakness may progress to paralysis often observed as a characteristic "wrist
						drop" or "foot drop" and is a manifestation of a disease to the nervous system
						called peripheral neuropathy. Chronic overexposure to lead also results in
						kidney disease with few, if any, symptoms appearing until extensive and most
						likely permanent kidney damage has occurred. Routine laboratory tests reveal
						the presence of this kidney disease only after about two-thirds of kidney
						function is lost. When overt symptoms of urinary dysfunction arise, it is often
						too late to correct or prevent worsening conditions, and progression to kidney
						dialysis or death is possible. Chronic overexposure to lead impairs the
						reproductive systems of both men and women. Overexposure to lead may result in
						decreased sex drive, impotence and sterility in men. Lead can alter the
						structure of sperm cells raising the risk of birth defects. There is evidence
						of miscarriage and stillbirth in women whose husbands were exposed to lead or
						who were exposed to lead themselves. Lead exposure also may result in decreased
						fertility, and abnormal menstrual cycles in women. The course of pregnancy may
						be adversely affected by exposure to lead since lead crosses the placental
						barrier and poses risks to developing fetuses. Children born of parents either
						one of whom were exposed to excess lead levels are more likely to have birth
						defects, mental retardation, behavioral disorders or die during the first year
						of childhood. Overexposure to lead also disrupts the blood-forming system
						resulting in decreased hemoglobin (the substance in the blood that carries
						oxygen to the cells) and ultimately anemia. Anemia is characterized by
						weakness, pallor and fatigability as a result of decreased oxygen carrying
						capacity in the blood.
(3) Health protection goals of the standard. Prevention
						of adverse health effects for most workers from exposure to lead throughout a
						working lifetime requires that a worker's blood lead level (BLL, also expressed
						as PbB) be maintained at or below forty micrograms per deciliter of whole blood
						(40 [MICRO]g/dl). The blood lead levels of workers (both male and female
						workers) who intend to have children should be maintained below 30 [MICRO]g/dl
						to minimize adverse reproductive health effects to the parents and to the
						developing fetus. The measurement of your blood lead level (BLL) is the most
						useful indicator of the amount of lead being absorbed by your body. Blood lead
						levels are most often reported in units of milligrams (mg) or micrograms (ug)
						of lead (1 mg=1000 [MICRO]g) per 100 grams (100g), 100 milliliters (100 ml) or
						deciliter (dl) of blood. These three units are essentially the same. Sometime
						BLLs are expressed in the form of mg% or [MICRO]g%. This is a shorthand
						notation for 100g, 100 ml, or dl. (Reference to BLL measurements in this
						standard are expressed in the form of [MICRO]g/dl.)
BLL measurements show the amount of lead circulating in
						your blood stream, but do not give any information about the amount of lead
						stored in your various tissues. BLL measurements merely show current absorption
						of lead, not the effect that lead is having on your body or the effects that
						past lead exposure may have already caused. Past research into lead-related
						diseases, however, has focused heavily on associations between BLLs and various
						diseases. As a result, your BLL is an important indicator of the likelihood
						that you will gradually acquire a lead-related health impairment or
						disease.
Once your blood lead level climbs about 40 [MICRO]g/dl,
						your risk of disease increases. There is a wide variability of individual
						response to lead, thus it is difficult to say that a particular BLL in a given
						person will cause a particular effect. Studies have associated fatal
						encephalopathy with BLLs as low as 150 [MICRO]g/dl. Other studies have shown
						other forms of diseases in some workers with BLLs well below 80 [MICRO]g/dl.
						Your BLL is a crucial indicator of the risks to your health, but one other
						factor is also extremely important. This factor is the length of time you have
						had elevated BLLs. The longer you have an elevated BLL, the greater the risk
						that large quantities of lead are being gradually stored in your organs and
						tissues (body burden). The greater your overall body burden, the greater the
						chances of substantial permanent damage. The best way to prevent all forms of
						lead-related impairments and diseases -- both short term and long term -- is to
						maintain your BLL below 40 [MICRO]g/dl. The provisions of the standard are
						designed with this end in mind.
Your employer has prime responsibility to assure that the
						provisions of the standard are complied with both by the company and by
						individual workers. You, as a worker, however, also have a responsibility to
						assist your employer in complying with the standard. You can play a key role in
						protecting your own health by learning about the lead hazards and their
						control, learning what the standard requires, following the standard where it
						governs your own actions, and seeing that your employer complies with
						provisions governing his or her actions.
(4) Reporting signs and symptoms of health problems. You
						should immediately notify your employer if you develop signs or symptoms
						associated with lead poisoning or if you desire medical advice concerning the
						effects of current or past exposure to lead or your ability to have a healthy
						child. You should also notify your employer if you have difficulty breathing
						during a respirator fit test or while wearing a respirator. In each of these
						cases, your employer must make available to you appropriate medical
						examinations or consultations. These must be provided at no cost to you and at
						a reasonable time and place. The standard contains a procedure whereby you can
						obtain a second opinion by a physician of your choice if your employer selected
						the initial physician.