Module 3: Toxicology - Section 11: Lead
TOX 11.5: Exercise: Lead Regulations

Task:

This will be done in class.

Consult:

  1. Lead Regulations 2001 (Open up the book on Regulations, and then the book on Lead Regulations 2001)
  2. Other material provided on lead.

Questions:

You are an occupational medical/health practitioner.

  1. As advisor to a lead using battery factory under the new regulations, you find a worker with a blood lead concentration of 65 µg/dl. Go throµgh all the steps you are required to take.
  2. The factory carries out zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) monitoring in terms of section 8 of the regulations. You find a worker with a ZPP of 12 µg/g Hb. You do a blood lead and find it is 58 µg/dl. What course of action is required?
  3. You are the advisor to the union representing workers in the above battery factory. The union asks you about the implications for the changeover from a medical removal standard of 80 µg/dl blood lead (old regulations) to 60 µg/dl (recent regulations). Prepare your advice.
  4. You are asked to prepare a health training session for workers. You want them to be aware of early warning signs of lead toxicity. What do you tell them?
  5. You are asked by an engineering contractor about a job which requires them to send a team of workers to remove lead paint from a large drilling rig using gas torches. How would the regulations apply?
  6. The workers are insisting on being provided with milk to protect them from the effects of lead. The management asks you to give your opinion. What would you say?
  7. You mention impotence as a possible effect of lead toxicity. After the education session, a number of employees come to you concerned about this symptom. How would you manage this?



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Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed Jeebhay and Rodney Ehrlich, Health Sciences UCT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers, Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available from here. For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za. Last updated Jan 2007.
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