Posted on 05/07/2010 9:45:16 AM PDT by suthener
MOBILE, Ala. -- Federal workplace safety and ThyssenKrupp AG officials are investigating how some equipment at the sprawling Calvert complex came to be coated with lead-bearing paint, and whether any workers have been exposed to lead.
Lead paint is outlawed in homes in the United States because the element, when ingested, can cause blood and brain disorders. But it's still allowed in some commercial and industrial paints domestically. Internationally, lead remains common in paint, and much of ThyssenKrupp's equipment is imported.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.al.com ...
Like I said on the other thread, one day we will all work for OSHA or the EPA.
As long as they are not sanding the paint and the employees are not eating paint chips, they should be alright.
Someone would be getting fired.
They’d have to be really hungry first. It takes a lot of lead to make you sick.
Doc, you know, dose makes the poison.
Lead paint has a pretty high concentration of lead, in kids, they can get pretty sick eating a small amount of paint chips.
I don’t thing adults would get in trouble eating chips, but I have seen a guy that was in bad shape, he was using a cutting torch at a scrap yard cutting up bridge pieces that had been painted with lead paint.
However, that being said, if the paint in intact and they aren’t turning it into respirable particles, it shouldn’t cause anybody any harm.
From a 1923 coloring book for kids,
“The Dutch Boy’s Lead Party”
The girl and boy felt very blue
Their toys were old and shabby too,
They couldn’t play in such a place,
The room was really a disgrace.
This famous Dutch Boy Lead of mine
Can make this playroom fairly shine
Let’s start our painting right away
You’ll find the work is only play.
Newsflash! High amounts of lead found in car batteries! Do not ingest car batteries!
"Zäh wie Leder, schnell wie Windhunde, hart wie Kruppstahl!"...?
My Mom would never let me eat the lead until I had drunk all the electrolyte, so I passed on the whole thing.
I own an environmental consulting company, and make my money helping employers comply with the asbestos/lead/OSHA/EPA and other myriad regulations. When I was a kid, I chewed my pencils. The lead in pencils was not in the lead (graphite), but in the paint. It actually creates a craving once you get a taste of it (your body thinks it’s calcium), which is why kids chew on window sills or other lead-painted surfaces. The paint on my pencils didn’t last an hour. It is a problem when kids are exposed (their bodies are developing and store more of it in their bones and teeth), but adults don’t typically suffer any harm (elevated BLL’s) unless they’re blasting, sanding, or torching paint. The real way to protect kids is to maintain painted surfaces so they don’t chip or peel.
Some of the newer studies suggest neurologic damage at levels well below the acceptable BLL in adults.
I was a medical director at a battery plant ages ago and it was a constant battle keeping the levels down in the employees. We had one employee that would have elevations in his BLL when he was on medical removal, luckily, he eventually persued a carreer outside the lead battery industry.
Thankfully I moved on before they introduced their improved lead cadmium alloy batteries, that one gave me nightmares.
I believe that translates to..Hard as Krupp Steel, tough as leather and fast as greyhounds.
BTW, have you ever read The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester?
Correct translation.
No, haven’t read the Manchester book. I’ll take a look at it, thanks for the pointer.
On another note, did you hear about the recycling plant somewhere near Chicago that had to pay a fine of somewhere near $750K for mercury contamination from the compact fluorescent light bulbs?
No, I didn’t. Do you have a link? Thanks.
Thyssen is also a German steel company....Thyssen and Krupp merged back in 1997
FWIW, I'm retired from TK and worked at the corp. hdqtrs in Troy, MI
EPA has come to stand for Economic Prevention Agency.
LOL! Nice.
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