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Blood Lead Levels: Medical Removal and Return to Work
In June, OSHA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) in the Federal Register to initiate a revision of the agency’s standards for occupational exposure to lead (see page 16). The Federal Register notice compares OSHA’s current medical-removal and return-to-work triggers to those established by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA), and to those recommended by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM). Information from the Federal Register appears below.
From “Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM)—Blood Lead Level for Medical Removal”:
“[E]xtensive research has emerged indicating that adverse health effects can occur in adults with lower BLLs than was previously recognized. For example, BLLs as low as
5 μg/dL have been associated with impaired kidney and reproductive function, high blood pressure, and cognitive effects attributed to prenatal exposure. Poorer performance on neurocognitive and neuropsychologic assessments were observed in adults with BLLs as low as 5–19 μg/dL compared with adults with BLLs below 5 μg/dL.”
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SOURCE
Federal Register: “Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM)—Blood Lead Level for Medical Removal” (June 2022).