Air-Lead Particle Sizes in Battery Manufacturing: Potential Effects on the OSHA Compliance Model

Abstract The permissible exposure limit (PEL) for lead, as designated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Lead Standard (29 CFR 1910,]1025), was established based on a model relating blood-lead and air-lead levels. Since particle size was considered an important aspect of the relationship and adequate empirical data were not available, a theoretical particle size “distribution” for lead-acid battery manufacturing plants was developed. This distribution was used in the model to select a PEL which was applied to all affected lead industries. The purpose of this study was to determine the actual size distributions of lead aerosols present in selected battery manufacturing operations and to compare these distributions to that assumed in the model. A total of 40 air samples, collected with eight-stage personal cascade impactors, were taken on workers at each of five operations at two different battery plants. Particle distributions in the sampled battery operations were similar. Mass ...