California Code of Regulations › Title 8 - Industrial Relations › Division 1 - Department of Industrial Relations › Chapter 4 - Division of Industrial Safety › Subchapter 7 - General Industry Safety Orders › Group 16 - Control of Hazardous Substances › Article 109 - Hazardous Substances and Processes › Appendix A - 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 at least 120
						  different occupations, including primary and secondary lead smelting, lead
						  storage battery manufacturing, lead pigment manufacturing and use, solder
						  manufacturing and use, shipbuilding and ship repairing, auto manufacturing, and
						  printing.
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 per cubic meter of air (30
						  [MICRO]g/M3), time-weighted average, based on an
						  8-hour workday. The action level initiates several requirements of the
						  standard, such as exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, and training and
						  education.
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 system, 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, or behavioral disorders or to 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 fatigue 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 worker blood lead levels (PbB) be maintained at
						  or below forty micrograms per one hundred grams of whole blood (40
						  [MICRO]g/100g). The blood lead levels of workers (both male and female workers)
						  who intend to have children should be maintained below 30 [MICRO]g/100g to
						  minimize adverse reproductive health effects to the parents and the developing
						  fetus.
The measurement of your blood lead level is the most
						  useful indicator of the amount of lead being absorbed by your body. Blood lead
						  levels (PbB) are most often reported in units of milligrams (mg) or micrograms
						  ([MICRO]g) 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 PbB's are expressed in the form of mg% or [MICRO]g%. This is a
						  shorthand notation for 100g, 100ml, or dl.
PbB 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. PbB 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 PbBs and various
						  diseases. As a result, the relative level of your PbB is an important indicator
						  of the probability of your acquiring a lead-related health impairment or
						  disease.
Once your blood lead level climbs above 40
						  [MICRO]g/100g, your risk of disease increases. There is a wide variability of
						  individual response to lead, thus it is difficult to say that a particular PbB
						  in a given person will cause a particular effect. Studies have associated fatal
						  encephalopathy with PbBs as low as 150 [MICRO]g/100g. Other studies have shown
						  other forms of disease in some workers with PbBs well below 80 [MICRO]g/100g.
						  Your PbB 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 PbBs. The longer you have an elevated PbB, 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
						  PbB below 40 [MICRO]g/100g. 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 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 on 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 the employer selected
						  the initial physician.