Lead Acid Battery Safety
While the battery industry is the world’s largest consumer of lead in the world, the chief sources of lead in the environment and lead exposure to people have been transportation, paint, and storage and preparation of water and food. In other words, leaded gasoline, leaded paint, lead glaze on pottery, lead in water pipes and fixtures, and lead solder. Association with these products, their issues have led to several lead acid battery myths, making lead acid batteries one of the most misunderstood products of our time. In terms of lead acid battery, how lead is controlled at battery plants?
Air Filters and Scrubbers
To keep microscopic particles of airborne lead emissions to a minimum, manufacturers and recyclers use high-efficiency air filters and wet scrubbers to filter plant air before it is released into the atmosphere. The filters are inspected and replaced regularly. The filters also are equipped with alarms, and the process is shut down or re-routed should a filter tear or break.
Clean Water
Manufacturers and recyclers capture and treat process water to keep lead out of streams and rivers. The water is tested before it is released to be certain it meets clean water standards.
Clean Air
At recycling plants, air monitors are installed at the perimeter of each property to make sure any lead in the air is below the allowable limit. The limit is 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air, averaged on a quarterly basis. This is an extremely conservative limit. To illustrate just how stringent this requirement is, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA] says a worker inside a plant may be safe even if exposed to 50 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air every day.
Work Practices
Children can be exposed to lead when a parent who works at a lead plant carries dust home on shoes or work clothes, or in the worker’s hair. OSHA regulations require workers in high-lead-exposure areas of the plant to leave work clothes and shoes there and to shower and wash their hair before going home. They also require workers in high-lead areas of the plant to wear a respirator, a device that filters lead particles out of the air a worker breathes. Education programs train workers to wash thoroughly before eating or smoking during lunch or breaks, and to practice other habits that safeguard their health.
Fugitive Emissions
Plants have a regular program of exterior vacuuming or washing down paved areas and capturing and treating rainwater runoff. Vehicles that transport lead products typically are hosed down before leaving a facility so that any dust on tires or the vehicle body is not carried to public roads.
Source: www.leoch.com
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