In this post I would like to highlight some important point regarding Lead specicifically for medical practitioner working in industry.

Adverse effects of lead to health are well known. It is a very good effort for government to enact factories and machinery (lead) regulations 1984 in Factories and machinery act 1967 (act 139).

This act contains 14 parts and 54 regulations.

The most important parts for medical practitioner who work under the umbrella of medical act 1947 are part II, IX, X and XIII

Part I contains 3 regulations mainly about ;

1. Permissible exposure limit (PEL),
2. PEL for exposure greater than eight hours and,
3. PEL when Using the respirator

It is stated in regulation 5 that no employee should be exposed to lead a t concentration greater than one hundred and fifty micrograms per cubic meter of air (150 microgram/m³ ) average over an eight hour period

and in regulation 6 stated that if and employee is exposed to lead for more than eight hours in any work day, the PEL as a time weighted average for that day, shall be reduce according to following formula ;

PEL in microgram/m³  for the day = 1200/hours worked in the day

In regulation 7, when respirators are used to supplement engineering and work practice control to comply with the PEL and all provisions of these regulations have been met, employee exposure, for the purpose, for the purpose of determining whether the employer has complied with PEL, may be considered to be at the level provided by the protection factor of the respirator for those periods the respirator is worn. These period may be averaged with exposure levels during periods when respirators are not worn to determine the employee’s daily TWA average