Health hazard evaluation report: HETA-87-371-1986, Technical Assistance to the Jamaican Ministry of Health, Kingston, Jamaica.
Authors
Matte TD; Burr GA
Source
Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 87-371-1986, 1989 Sep; :1-44
In response to a request from the Principal Medical Officer of the Epidemiology Unit in the Jamaican Ministry of Health, a study was made of lead exposure at three battery manufacturing facilities (SIC- 3691) in Kingston, Jamaica: Tropical Battery with approximately 30 production workers, Apex Battery with 12 workers, and Unistate Battery with five production workers. Each of the three companies was in the process of conducting limited medical screening of their production workers. Full shift personal breathing zone air samples for lead ranged from 40 to 5300 micrograms/cubic meter (microg/m3), from 50 to 3400microg/m3, and from 30 to 190microg/m3 at the three locations, respectively. Operations with the highest lead exposures included the plate separator and battery assembly and they exceeded the OSHA permissible exposure limit of 50microg/m3. Blood samples indicated blood lead levels in seven of 29 employees at Tropical were over the recommended medical removal level of 50 micrograms/deciliter (microg/dl) and that 17 of 29 had levels of 40microg/dl or greater. For the Apex facility the blood lead levels in nine of 12 workers were 60microg/dl or greater. Blood samples from three of four production employees tested at Unistate exceeded 60microg/dl. The authors conclude that a high risk of lead toxicity existed among workers at the battery manufacturers surveyed. The authors recommend that general and local exhaust ventilation should be provided, work practices altered to reduce lead exposure, and respiratory protection programs should be implemented.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.