Lead Poisoning Called a Big Health Concern

Almost a decade after the imposition of strict federal limits on lead exposure in the workplace, lead poisoning remains “a major public health and occupational health concern” in California, especially in Los Angeles County, a state health agency says in a new study.

More than 350 workers in construction, lead smelting, battery making and other industries had occupational lead exposures that raised the lead levels in their blood to potentially dangerous heights, according to a review of nine months of blood test results from labs throughout the state by the Occupational Health Surveillance and Evaluation Program.

Many Latinos Affected

Four out of five of the reported cases of elevated blood-lead levels involved Los Angeles County residents, and 44% of those affected statewide were Latinos--more than double the proportion of Latinos in the state’s population.

The report did not indicate how many of the estimated 350 serious cases involved Orange County workers. Results from more than 1,300 blood tests were studied; of those, 2%, or 26, were Orange County cases.

“Even many years after the passage of the federal standard for lead and the availability of control technology, there are still workplaces where lead remains essentially uncontrolled, risking the health of workers, their families and the community,” said the report, issued late last week by the Berkeley-based agency, a division of the state Department of Health Services.

In one case described in the study, workers demolishing a bridge coated with lead paint were denied respirators. Of six workers on the job, three were hospitalized--one with a blood-lead level four times above that considered potentially dangerous.

Because the report is the first ever under a state law requiring medical labs to report the results of blood-lead tests, the study makes no attempt to judge whether lead-related problems at work are increasing or declining.

Occupational health experts, though, said Thursday that while the incidence of lead exposure probably has fallen, the study had uncovered a serious, ongoing concern.

“This is disturbing, because we know how to control exposures in many industrial settings,” said Dr. David H. Garabrant, an assistant professor of occupational health at the USC School of Medicine. “It shouldn’t be happening. We’ve known how to stop it for a long time, and it’s still going on.”

Initial symptoms of lead exposure include stomach cramps and fatigue. Because lead accumulates in the body, extended exposure to high levels poses an ever greater danger and can damage the circulatory system, the central nervous system, the gastrointestinal system, the kidneys and the reproductive system.

The largest number of cases of elevated blood-lead levels--37% of the total--involved workers employed in smelting plants, according to the study. The most serious cases involved construction workers engaged in demolition and paint stripping, radiator repairmen and employees of battery manufacturing plants.

Regular Monitoring Required

Under federal standards for lead exposure implemented by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the late 1970s, a worker’s blood-lead level must be monitored regularly if it tests once at more than 40 micrograms per deciliter. If a worker tests once at 60 or registers 50 on three consecutive blood tests, the employer is required by federal regulations to remove the worker to an area of the workplace with less lead exposure. Blood-lead levels of 80 or more often require hospitalization.

The state study found 231 workers whose blood-lead reading peaked at 40 and 68 others that peaked at 50. According to the study, 40 workers peaked at 60 to 79 while 16 workers peaked at 80 micrograms per deciliter or more. Besides reviewing laboratory test results, the state surveillance program interviewed workers, their physicians and their 1701671020the workers’ families had been placed at risk by the workplace lead exposures.

“The first nine months of reporting indicate that elevated blood lead with the potential for serious acute and chronic lead poisoning in adults is a major public health and occupational health concern,” the report said.

In one case described in the study, federal OSHA investigators cited a battery plant for “gross violations” of the federal lead standard after two dozen workers were found with blood-lead levels as high as 99 micrograms per deciliter. According to the study, the plant was so contaminated that the workers’ blood-lead counts increased, rather than fell, when they were transferred to supposedly low-exposure levels.

In another case, two women who worked several weeks stripping paint from an old home in the San Francisco Bay Area--protected only by ineffective dust masks--reported extreme fatigue, abdominal discomfort and loss of appetite. Blood-lead tests found counts as high as 94 micrograms per deciliter, and both women required hospitalization.

Lead Paint in Old Homes

The cases outlined in the report, the study said, should serve as a reminder that many old houses and bridges still are coated with lead paint, which has been banned from sale since the mid-1970s. Incidents like the one at the battery plant, it said, indicate that some employers are ignoring federal regulations on lead exposure.

“Many employers were not aware of their legal obligations to provide hygienic work conditions under the federal OSHA lead standard, nor were workers generally informed of their legal protections,” the report said.

Occupational health experts interviewed Thursday said on-the-job lead exposures probably have been declining since the mid-1970s, when state and federal regulators began cracking down on improper handling of lead by industry.

“We have made a lot of progress, but we still have a major, ongoing problem,” said Dr. Ira H. Monosson, a Santa Monica physician specializing in occupational health who was chief medical officer of the California Department of Occupational Health and Safety from 1980-82.

Other studies have identified a continuing risk to children from ingesting lead-based paint on older, especially substandard, homes. Some researchers have suggested that lead poses a health hazard at levels below those considered dangerous by federal regulators.