California Nears Approving Nation’s Toughest Lead Exposure Rules

The nation’s toughest rules for on-the-job lead exposure are set for a vote from California workplace safety regulators.

If the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board approves the requirements on Thursday—one for construction, one for general industry—the California business mandates would likely take effect July 1. Enforcement would start six months later.

The allowable amount of airborne lead in workplaces would drop 80% from current state and federal requirements, which were set about 40 years ago. The amount of lead in blood that would mandate that employers reassign workers to jobs with less lead exposure would decrease 40%.

The changes California is considering have long been called for by worker and public health advocates, who argue that the state’s rules and similar federal limits are based on outdated, decades-old research and in need of updates.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration has taken some steps, proposing to lower lead levels that would require a worker’s removal from the work site (RIN:1218-AD10), though no draft rule has yet been floated. The federal agency also hasn’t sought changes to the allowable levels of airborne lead.

Chronic overexposure to lead can result in severe damage to cardiovascular, nervous, urinary, and reproductive systems, according to medical research cited by California officials to justify the new requirements. Symptoms of overexposure include excessive tiredness, nervous irritability, insomnia, joint pain, and tremors.

Stephen Knight, executive director of the employee-advocacy group Worksafe Inc. in Berkeley, Calif., said California’s proposed change would bring state requirements in line with public health recommendations.

“This rule is based on real scientific evidence. I think it is ready to go,” Knight said.

Lead poses a unique workplace health hazard because workers may unintentionally expose their families by arriving home in clothes covered in particles, Knight said.

Workers in at least 120 occupations are exposed to lead, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which would enforce the rules. The industries include lead battery manufacturing and recycling, lead smelting, firearm ranges, ship repair, auto manufacturing, construction, and demolition.

Expanded Impact

Employer groups believe the reduced exposure thresholds mean many employers who are below the current limits may not even realize they’ll need to comply.

“Lowering the level is going to expand the scope and impact,” said Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable in Santa Monica, Calif.

At hearings and in written comments, many companies where lead is frequently used or an essential part of manufactured products have said they object to Cal/OSHA’s insistence that lower blood levels can be primarily achieved for indoor work by using ventilation systems to clean the air.

Employers would prefer using a mix of personal respirators, vacuum systems attached to equipment, frequent cleaning, and building ventilation.

Once the rules take effect July 1, most employers would have six months to comply, with some exceptions.

Employers would be allowed one year to make physical building changes, such as adding showers where workers could wash lead from their skin and hair, and clothing changing rooms to get out of uniforms covered with lead dust.

Lead battery manufacturers that may need to make extensive changes to plants, such as installing new ventilation systems, would have five years to be in full compliance.

By the Numbers

The proposed California blood lead level for when workers would have to be reassigned to jobs with less exposure would decrease 40%—from 50 micrograms per deciliter (50 µg/dL) to 30 µg/dL. The employer could return the worker to their prior assignment once their blood lead level is below 15 µg/dL.

The allowable amount of workplace airborne lead would go from 50 micrograms per cubic meter (50 µg/m3) to 10 µg/m3 over an eight-hour time-weighted average. The permitted federal level is 50 µg/m3.

In addition, the lower levels of airborne lead that would trigger requirements that employers take preventative measures would be stricter.

The “action level” for airborne lead would decline by 93% from 30 µg/m3 to 2 µg/m3. If air tests found lead levels between 2 and 30 µg/m3, employers would be required to conduct air sampling at least annually.

If lead levels were between 30 and 50 ug/m3, they would have to test twice a year.

Long Time Coming

States with their own worker safety enforcement programs generally follow federal OSHA’s rules on lead levels. Michigan in 2019 approved a medical removal level of 30 micrograms per deciliter, but no other state has followed suit.

Efforts in California to lower on-the-job lead exposure go back to at least 2010.

Cal/OSHA in 2011 convened an advisory committee that met through 2015. The draft rules that emerged from those sessions were never enacted.

Then the state legislature in 2019 passed a bill calling for Cal/OSHA to present proposed rule changes to the standards board in 2020, but Covid-19 put completion of the rules on hold.

Cal/OSHA introduced the current proposed rules in March 2023.

Following a public hearing in April and two comment periods, Cal/OSHA made some changes to the standard sought by employers.

Those changes included not requiring showers at construction sites where lead exposure was a concern if the employer could show showers weren’t feasible, as well as allowing workers to wear N100-rated respiratorsto protect themselves from inhaling lead dust.

An N100 respirator removes at least 99.97% of airborne particles, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.