What regulations control work and exposure to Lead in the UK

Lead is a risk to the health of those who are exposed on a regular basis. The health effects of lead vary depending on the duration of exposure. Short term health effects include high blood pressure, abdominal pain, fatigue, reproductive problems, and memory loss. Long term effects of lead exposure can cause kidney and brain damage. Very high lead exposure can cause death. Regulations and laws have been created to protect the health of workers.  

The two core groups of workers who face exposure to lead are those who work within the construction and manufacturing industries. Painters and decorators and those in the demolition industry are at most risk within construction. Workers who manufacture ammunition and vehicle batteries.

There are many regulations in the UK controlling the use of lead in the construction, manufacturing and environmental industries. However, there are two main regulations regarding the protection of workers that may be exposed to lead.

The first being The Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002- (CLAW). This is a regulation that is in place and practiced across the UK to protect any employee, or person who may be exposed to Lead whilst works take place. This regulation is relevant to both construction and manufacturing. The regulation places responsibility onto the employer.

Under CLAW an employer must-
Make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health of employees caused by the work and whether any exposure would be significant. They should Identify and implement the measures to prevent/control the likely exposure. And record the findings of the assessment after the assessment is made.

If the exposure is deemed to be significant an employer must-
(a) Provide employees with protective clothing, PPE and effective RPE.
(b) Monitor lead-in-air concentrations.
(c) Place employees under medical surveillance.

It is important to monitor employees to ensure that they are not being exposed to potentially harmful volumes of lead. Blood testing at the beginning of works, during and the completion of the work is an effective method to learn if any lead had entered the body, how exactly how much. It is essential to understand the level of risk, some activities are low risk and would not require regular health surveillance (scraping of loose flaking lead paint) or high level of protection, but some are more serious and require more stringent controls (Sanding down old windows before repainting them). 
Between 2014-2015, only 6,319 British workers were under medical surveillance, mostly involved in smelting and manufacturing. 740 were involved in paint removal and 299 in painting of buildings and vehicles. With around 800,000 workers in Construction and probably millions of painters and decorators, you would assume that more workers should be under medical surveillance under existing CLAW regulations. In 2021 only 3602 workers were under surveillance, with a total of 6 workers suspended due to excess blood-lead levels.

This graph shows that from 2011/12-2020/21 there has been a decrease in those who work with lead who are under surveillance.
 
However, it also shows that the year before Covid-19, there was an increase in the figure.
 
The HSE admit that one of the weaknesses of their statistics is that it is dependent on compliance with the CLAW regulations – including workers that need not be under surveillance, and workers that should be under surveillance but are not.

The second regulation is the CDM, it indirectly relates to working with Lead and will be more relevant to construction works, and risk management. Virtually everyone involved in a construction project has legal duties under CDM 2015, from the client down to the labourer. The idea of this regulation is that risks and hazards are thought about well in advance of work commencing, and continuous risk management throughout the work. The Principe Designer will have created and maintained a Health and Safety File, this should contain an assessment of hazardous materials – including Lead paints and special coatings. This information should be made available to contractors to determine how to safely remove and dispose of such materials. Under CDM contingencies should be in place to manage hazards such as Lead (i.e., Lead Surveys, Reassurance, Medical Surveillance) prior to work commencing and during. This should be arranged in advanced and documented.  

REACH, which is relevant to manufacturing, importing and exporting is a European Union regulation created in December 2006. REACH addresses the production and use of chemical substances, and their potential impacts on both human health and the environment. Since the UK left the EU, a new regulation was made in 2021, UK REACH. UK REACH applies to most chemical substances that are manufactured in or imported into the UK. The key principles of EU REACH were copied into UK REACH, however if goods are imported/exported between the UK and EU both regulations need to be complied with. The aim of UK REACH is to offer protection to human health and the environment, make manufacturers and importers responsible for managing the risk of chemicals that they are responsible for.

Regulations are not only a modern day thought, in November 1926 Lord Arnold stated, “it shall not be lawful for any person to employ a person in painting with lead paint any part of the interior of a building or for any person employed in painting to use lead paint in painting any part of the interior of a building”. This was not including industrial buildings or artists. This is the Lead Paint (Protection against Poisoning) Act 1926.

My last find is the CAS Registry. This is the most authoritative collection of disclosed chemical substance information. CAS covers substances identified from the scientific literature from 1957 to the present, with additional substances going back to the early 1900s. The registry is updated daily with thousands of new substances. Lead has a CAS number - 7439-92. Each chemical has an individual number and will not be shared with another chemical. Numbers are assigned in a sequential order.

Despite the known risks to health, lead is still used within the UK today. It is used mostly within the manufacturing industry and is not available for the general public to use. Owing to its valuable physical properties metallic lead has many uses including in storage batteries, cables, solders and steel products, ammunition, shielding systems from radiation and x-rays, circuit boards in computers and electronic equipment, and superconductor and optical technology. Historically lead has been used in paint, petrol, food cans and water pipes; these uses have been phased out in the EU. However, old lead containing products may still be in circulation. Leaded petrol was banned in the EU in 2000 with possible exceptions until 2005, while the sale of lead paint was banned in the UK from 1992.