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Lessons Learned from Surface Wipe Sampling for Lead in Three Workplaces

06/02/2017 | Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene

Insights to protect workers and their families from exposure to lead.

Surface wipe sampling in the occupational environment is a technique widely used by industrial hygienists. Although several organizations have standards for sampling lead and other metals, uncertainty still exists when trying to determine an appropriate wipe sampling strategy and how to interpret sampling results.

Diana Ceballos, Research Scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, worked with investigators from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Health Hazard Evaluation Program, on this study. NIOSH has used surface wipe sampling as part of their exposure assessment sampling strategies in a wide range of workplaces.

This manuscript discusses wipe sampling for measuring lead on surfaces in a battery recycling facility, a firing range and gun store, and an electronic scrap recycling facility.

Findings

Wiping sampling demonstrated lead in non-production surfaces in all three workplaces and there is potential that employees were taking lead home to their families.

Read the study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene