Sources of Lead
Shipyard operations, such as sandblasting and shipbreaking, also called ship scrapping, ship disposal, or ship recycling, can result in exposure to lead. Lead is commonly used in maritime paints as an anticorrosive agent. It is also used in greases, as tetraethyl lead added in fuels, and as radiation shielding in nuclear-powered vessels and submarines.
Welding on lead-containing materials can cause exposure to lead.
Lead exposure also has many sources in general industry and construction, both on and off the job. Exposure to lead may occur from numerous sources, including:
How It's Made, Recycling Car Batteries
- Lead is sometimes found in certain foods, cosmetics, art supplies, and traditional medicines imported from other countries.
- Structures built before 1978 (when lead-based paints were banned) probably contain lead-based paint.
- The most common sources of lead in drinking water are lead pipes, faucets, and plumbing fixtures.
- Workers and customers at gun ranges can also be exposed to lead when it is released into the air when guns are fired. Lead dust can get on your clothes, food, cigarettes, or other items that can eventually be inhaled or digested.
- While natural levels of lead in soil range between 50 and 400 parts per million, mining, smelting, and refining activities have resulted in substantial increases in lead levels in the environment.
- Welding steel or other metal coated with lead could produce lead oxide exposure.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-3. Consumer uses of lead-based paint was banned by the federal government in _____.
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