OSHA requirements, lead surveillance

Terminology used by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to state the level of toxicant that requires medical surveillance and training to further protect employees. It is usually one-half the level of the permissible exposure limit. Action levels exist for only a few air contaminants, such as lead, cadmium, and benzene. Activated Charcoal... 

An action level is an air concentration that triggers the initiation of requited activities, such as exposure monitoring and medical surveillance. OSHA defined the action level for lead as employee exposure, without regard to the use of respirators, to an aiibome concentration of lead of 30 pg/m averaged over an 8-hour period (29 CFR 1910.1025(b)). Exposure monitoring is performed to determine whether employees are exposed to lead above the action level. Some requirements are instituted when the action level is exceeded (see the section Medical Monitoring below). 

Some OSHA standards, such as lead, cadmium, methylene chloride, formaldehyde, and benzene, have medical removal requirements. If an employee is medically removed under a standard s medical surveillance reqrurements, record the case on the OSHA 300 Log. 

The OSHA Lead Standard (29 CFR 1910.1025, 1987) established two exposure limits, both applicable over an 8-hour time-weighted average, an action level of 30 pg/m= and a permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 50 pg/mf If an employee s exposure is at or above the action level, the standard requires the employer to perform exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, training, and remove workers with blood lead concentrations at or above 50 pg/dl of blood. If exposure exceeds the PEL, the employer must do the following. 

The Lead standard requires blood testing to comply with the biological and medical requirements of the standard at 1910.1025(j). However, neither the lead standard, nor any other OSHA standard, makes participation in the medical surveillance program mandatory for the employee. 

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