Purpose

The purpose of this project was to prepare a report on an occupational health and safety problem in a lead smelter. Our company was invited to assist in solving the issues the smelter had with the employees ’ high lead levels in the blood. The employees were tested every four or six weeks depending on the number of hours they were working. Once an employee reaches a certain “transfer level”, he or she has to be removed from the high-lead area to lower-lead areas. In the event that an employee’s lead blood level has reached this “transfer level”, the most common practice is that a subcontractor is called in to carry out the work. This, of course, contributes to high labour costs. Another most important consideration is that lead is a very dangerous contaminant and is well known to have very serious health effects. It is believed that long-term exposure can contribute to Alzheimer’s decease, early aging etc. We can further find in the SEA SE-Data chemical database that lead can contribute to headache, nausea, loss of appetite, and other complaints. The Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) currently in use in Australia are the Exposure Standards for Atmospheric Contaminants in the Occupational Environment, published by the National Occupational Health & Safety Commission (NOHSC). Exposure Standards are lists of numbers that indicate maximum allowed concentrations of airborne hazardous substances. Previously the OELs used were the American Threshold Limit Values or TLVs, published by the American Conference o