Evaluation of Lead Exposure by Hand Wipes: A Review of the Effectiveness of Personal Hygiene on Industrial Sites

Abstract

To evaluate the effectiveness of personal hygiene (handwashing) amongst workers at industrial sites to remove lead from their hands, a retrospective analysis of hand wipe samples was conducted using data collected by two contractors from two bridge painting projects for total lead using method ASTM E-1979-17/EPA SW846 7000B. Exposures resulted from the removal of lead-based paint from the structure and trace elements of lead found in the abrasive blast media. In total, six work tasks were evaluated and sixty unique hand wipe samples were evaluated. Thirty samples were collected during the worker's lunch break, after they had reportedly washed their hands with a further 30 collected at the end of the workday following the same protocol. To be included in this evaluation, the contractors were required to follow NIOSH Method 9105 (Lead in Dust Wipes-Dermal Surfaces) with subsequent analysis of samples for total lead by an American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) accredited laboratory. All 60 samples contained detectable lead. The lead exposures ranged from 19.5 µg to 3420 µg. The geometric mean for the samples collected was 337 µg. These results indicate that current personal hygiene practices at the evaluated sites are not effective at removing lead from worker's hands during and after the workday. They also suggest that the residual lead measured on the workers' hands, at the end of the shift, is likely contributing to the elevated blood lead levels in this population.

Analysis of Air Pollution Level In Settlement Area Using Passive Sampler Method

“…The measurement results show that the average level of NO2 is 4.785 g/m 3 and the average level of SO2 is 6.55 g/m 3 . The SO2 level was higher than the NO2 level in Tondong FDS, but the results of the Tondong FDS the Air Quality Index (AQI) calculation were still in the "very good" category (Gilbert et al, 1996;Guth et al, 2019) with a value of 93.14. The study was conducted in the rainy season for 14 days with sunny weather conditions for 2 days and rain for 12 days.…”