Revised EU workplace limits for lead
The European Council has approved new rules for the protection of employees from exposure to lead.
The updated rules – soon to be published in the EU Official Journal – include a revised binding workplace occupational exposure limit for lead in air of 0.03 Pb mg/m3 and a biological limit value for lead in blood of 15 µg Pb/100 ml, as well as new guidance to protect female workers of childbearing age.
The new rules replace 40-year EU workplace air lead limits of 0.15 Pb mg/m3 and for employees to have blood lead levels of no higher than 70µg Pb/100 ml blood.
Policymakers have recognised the challenges of introducing substantively lower biological limits by granting a transition period whereby a limit value of 30 µg Pb/100 ml blood will apply until the end of 2028. This should allow companies sufficient time to introduce the necessary changes in working practices for managing blood lead levels. Special medical surveillance provisions have also been developed for workers who may have been occupationally exposed to lead over several years, which will minimise any health risks while protecting their employment.
Dr Steve Binks, Senior Regulatory Affairs Director at the International Lead Association said: “As an industry we have long adopted ambitious voluntary guidelines for the reduction of lead exposure for employees in our member companies because the prevailing legislative limits were outdated and not reflective of the available health science or modern exposure controls.
“Our guidelines have seen the average blood lead values for employees in ILA companies fall in 2022 to 11.85 µg Pb/100 ml blood and most companies are well on target to meet the EU’s new biological exposure limits.
“During the process of developing the new binding workplace limits all stakeholders recognised that a measurement of internal dose in the form of regular employee blood lead testing is a better risk management tool then air lead measurements.”
He added that the new EU binding occupational exposure limit for lead in air of 0.03 Pb mg/m3, that will need to be adopted by EU member States by 2026, will create unnecessary compliance costs for many European companies in the battery and other lead-using supply chains, without achieving significant health benefits.
Dr Binks said: “We need policymakers to understand that proper impact assessments should accompany these decisions to ensure measures are effective and proportionate, and that they do not hamper unnecessarily European companies’ competitiveness and growth potential.”
