Industry programme drives reductions in blood lead levels among employees

More than 60 delegates from around the world joined the seventh ILA workplace lead exposure management workshop to discuss ways of continuing to reduce blood lead levels among employees, as part of the Pb2023 conference in Athens. 

The workshop, co-sponsored by EUROBAT – the European automotive and industrial battery manufacturers association – facilitated best practice sharing between environment and health and safety professionals. It was designed to support companies achieving the associations’ target of no employee exceeding a blood lead value of 20µg Pb/dL (20 micrograms per decilitre) by the end of 2025.

The workshop proved even more relevant following the publication in February of a European Commission proposal to significantly reduce the current EU binding biological limit value from 70 micrograms per decilitre to 15. 

Delegates heard from Lucy Michalska, ILA’s Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Officer, that the ILA voluntary blood lead reduction programme now includes 46 sites involved in primary lead production or recycling – up from 32 sites in 2013 when the initiative was launched. And the geographic spread of participants has widened significantly, involving companies in China and India as well as Europe and North America and it includes almost 7000 employees. 

At the end of 2022 the average employee blood lead measurement among ILA members was 11.85 micrograms per decilitre, compared to 17 in 2013. Approximately 13 per cent of workers in the programme still have a blood lead above our voluntary target of 20 micrograms per decilitre demonstrating why it is a challenge to achieve the proposed new regulatory standards being discussed in Europe without a transition period and/or special consideration for workers whose blood lead values exceed the limit because of past, historically higher exposures. 

However, the results presented during the workshop highlighted that the programme has been effective in encouraging continuous improvement in participating companies’ performance reducing workplace lead exposures.

The workshop also heard direct from companies on their experiences in reducing lead exposures from EHS professionals representing Clarios, Glencore and the Polish metal producer KGHM. And delegates received practical solutions-based advice from engineering specialists Engitec and exposure control equipment suppliers Gore and 3M. 

Delegates will now take these valuable lessons back to their workplaces and continue with efforts to reduce employee lead exposures to levels as low as practicable in line with the guidelines published by the four participating associations, ILA, EUROBAT, Battery Council International and the Association of Battery Recyclers in 2022. 

Click here to read the voluntary blood lead continuous improvement programme.