Improving Occupational Hygiene in Primary Lead Production

摘要

Occupational hygiene in terms of lead contamination and the monitoring of blood lead levels among employees has always been a matter of concern in lead plants. Coming from constantly decreasing blood lead levels in the last decades, Berzelius Stolberg experienced stagnation in blood lead levels in 2010 and 2011 at a level of 20,0 μg/dl as a mean value for all employees at the plant. Although all employees individually have been below the legal limit of 40 μg/dl, Berzelius Stolberg decided to increase the effort in terms of occupational hygiene once again in order to reduce blood lead levels even more. Up to that moment, several procedures had been implemented to counsel and support operators with increased blood lead levels and many different technical devices had been installed in order to separate contaminated production areas from clean workshops, social rooms, and offices. For the new approach both, the behavior related measures as well as the technical measures have been systematically analyzed and improved. An additional and preventive coaching called LIBB (Lerninitiative Blutblei = learning initiative blood lead) was initiated from early 2012 on, where every employee in the plant from the managing director to the last newcomer on the shopfloor has been accompanied for several hours by a coach during his normal work. Sources of contamination have been explained and revealed in a feedback session using a checklist. In terms of technical hygiene new standards have been created to separate contaminated areas from clean areas, followed by an investment in order to implement these standards from late 2012 on. Since June 2012 the blood lead levels of the employees are again constantly decreasing.