HSE press release E029:03 - 26 February 2003
The Health and Safety Executive today publishes its latest statistics (for 2001/02) on blood lead levels of workers in Great Britain exposed to lead, as collected under the Control of Lead at Work Regulations.
The distribution of blood-lead levels of lead workers under medical surveillance in 2001/02 and each of the previous two years is shown in Table 1. Table 2 on the following page gives a detailed breakdown of the distribution of blood-lead levels by industry sector for 2001/02. It also shows separate figures for the number of young people under medical surveillance in 2001/02 by industry sector.
The main points are:
More detailed figures and a full commentary on this and earlier years' data are available on HSE's website at www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/lead/index.htm.
Prepared by the Government Statistical Service
| Maximum measured blood-lead level (µg/100ml) | 1999/00 | 2000/01 | 2001/02 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | % | No | % | No | % | ||
| Male workers | Total under surveillance | 16,832 | 100.0 | 15,279 | 100.0 | 14,577 | 100.0 |
| <40 | 14,371 | 85.4 | 12,940 | 84.7 | 12,454 | 85.4 | |
| 40<50 | 1,578 | 9.4 | 1,553 | 10.2 | 1,356 | 9.4 | |
| 50<60 | 671 | 4.0 | 622 | 4.1 | 614 | 4.2 | |
| 60<70 | 165 | 1.0 | 126 | 0.8 | 121 | 0.8 | |
| 70+ | 47 | 0.3 | 38 | 0.2 | 32 | 0.2 | |
| Individuals suspended | 117 | 0.7 | 81 | 0.5 | 100 (a) | 0.7 | |
| Female workers | Total under surveillance | 813 | 100.0 | 716 | 100.0 | 620 | 100.0 |
| <25 | 759 | 93.3 | 648 | 90.5 | 560 | 90.3 | |
| 25<30 | 32 | 4.0 | 36 | 5.0 | 36 | 5.8 | |
| 30<40 | 15 | 1.8 | 25 | 3.5 | 17 | 2.7 | |
| 40+ | 7 | 0.9 | 7 | 1.0 | 7 | 1.2 | |
| Individuals suspended | 7 | 0.9 | 13 | 1.8 | 10 | 1.6 | |
(a) The figure for 2001/02 is a provisional estimate
| Sector | Male workers Percentage in blood-lead category (µg/100ml) |
Total under surveillance | Aged under 18 yrs | Female workers Number in category1 |
Total under surveillance | Aged under 18 yrs | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <20 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70+ | <20 | 20-24 | 25-29 | 30-39 | 40+ | |||||
| Smelting, refining, alloying, casting | 43.8 | 22.3 | 18.6 | 10.8 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 3,448 | 1 | 86 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 92 | 0 |
| Lead battery industry | 19.1 | 22.9 | 25.9 | 20.0 | 10.7 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 2,816 | 0 | 51 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 83 | 0 |
| Badge and jewellery enamelling and other vitreous enamelling | 63.2 | 15.8 | 21.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 19 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Glass making | 58.4 | 22.8 | 11.8 | 5.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 705 | 3 | 41 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 50 | 0 |
| Manufacture of pigments and colours | 80.2 | 10.2 | 5.5 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 541 | 0 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 |
| Potteries, glazes and transfers | 73.7 | 14.8 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 209 | 0 | 152 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 174 | 0 |
| Manufacture of inorganic and organic lead compounds | 62.6 | 17.5 | 12.5 | 4.7 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1,213 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| Shipbuilding, repairing and breaking | 88.9 | 0.0 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Demolition industry | 70.4 | 14.2 | 8.7 | 3.4 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 416 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Painting buildings and vehicles | 63.0 | 12.1 | 9.9 | 6.2 | 4.9 | 2.1 | 1.8 | 811 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Work with metallic lead and lead containing alloys | 61.6 | 20.0 | 10.7 | 4.6 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1,585 | 6 | 100 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 108 | 3 |
| Other processes | 68.5 | 14.8 | 8.9 | 5.2 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 2,460 | 4 | 60 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 68 | 0 |
| Scrap industry | 37.3 | 26.9 | 20.5 | 10.1 | 4.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 327 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| All sectors | 51.0 | 19.2 | 15.3 | 9.3 | 4.2 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 14,577 | 17 | 529 | 31 | 36 | 17 | 7 | 620 | 3 |
1Note: Because the numbers of women with high blood-lead levels in individual sectors are very small, percentages could be misleading and so the data are given as absolute numbers
1. Under the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002, and the former 1980 and 1998 Regulations, all workers with significant exposure to lead are required to be under medical surveillance by an appointed doctor or one of HSE's Medical Inspectors. The surveillance includes measurement of each worker's 'blood-lead level', the amount of lead in samples of their blood, expressed in micrograms per hundred millilitres (µg/100ml). Annual returns give summary statistics for each workplace based on the maximum blood-lead level recorded for each worker under surveillance.
2. The Approved Code of Practice issued with the Regulations lays down limits of blood-lead concentration above which the appointed doctor is required to take action. If a worker's blood-lead level reaches or exceeds this limit a repeat measurement must be made, and if this still reaches or exceeds the limit the worker should be suspended from working with lead. The number of such workers suspended is also recorded annually and analysed in the statistics. Under the 1980 Regulations the limits were 70µg/100ml for men (80µg/100ml up to 1986) and 40µg/100ml for women of reproductive capacity (to protect the health of any developing foetus). The suspension levels were lowered in the 1998 Regula-tions (and remained unchanged in the 2002 Regulations), to 60 and 30µg/100ml respectively, with new 'action levels' of 50 and 25µg/100ml. The 1998 Regulations also introduced suspension and action levels for young persons aged 18 years of 50 and 40µg/100ml re-spectively.
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