Document nkmrdVrGaxX869GQd1Qdg94x8

FILE NAME Threshold Limit Values TLV DATE 1997 DOC TLV002 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Medical Journal Letter to the Editor - How Threshold Limits for Lead Were Established in the 1950s AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE 702-703 1997 LETTER TO THE EDITOR How Threshold Limits for Lead Were Established in the 1950s KEY WORDS lead Lead Industries Association American Standards American Industrial Hygiene Association TLN'TLsN's standard setting Association In 1955 Manfied Bowditch Health and Salety Director of the Lead Industries Association LIA arranged to be named Chairman of the group within the American Stan- dards Association ASA concerned with occupational expo- sure limits for lead This was called the Subcommittee on Lead of the Committee on Toxie Dusts and Gases of the ASA The subcommittee recommended sarsing the longaccepted standard of 0.15 mg m to lead and lead compounds in an to 0.2 more for lead sulfide and it was expected that the parent committee would accept the recommendation LIA 1956 The ASA was also useful to the lead industry in setting a sort of baby threshold mit LIA 1956 The minal proposal of the New York City Health Department to requite a poison label on all paints containing any lead whatsoever was ultimately modshed though the establishment at our instance sic of a committee of the American Standards Association which evolved a standard permitting up to one percent of lead in paints used on surfaces which might be chewed by children The LIA report went on to add that " The poison wording was also modified Di John Foulger of DuPont one of the members of the ASA subcommittee on lead later explamed the rationale for the recommendation that up to 1 percent of lead would be safe in paints chewed by mfant children It was based on information from the paint industry that one gallon of paint would cover 500 sq ft and on the assumption that only one coating of paint would be applied to the surface chewed The committee's assumptions were not limited to strictly seien- tific matters W concluded that a child would take in one Correspondence to Barry Castleman 2412 Pickwick Road Baltimore MD 21207-6631 mail bcastle hop lib md us Accepted 6 June 1997 milligram of lead if ate about one and a half to two square inches of pant It was considered also that surely the parent would notice that amount of chewing Foulger 1958 In 1957. Bowditch reported to the industry that the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygien- Hygienists ACGIH had accepted the increase proposed by the SA group and the 2 cm figure now becomes the " official government Standard Lacking as it was in scientifsciientcific justification however the change drew some objections Bowditch 1957 The advance in the threshold inmit for fead an from 15 to 0.2 milligrams per cubic meter first proposed by an American Standards Association subcommittee hended by our health and safety director and subsequently adopted by the American Conference of Governmental Governmental Industrial Hygienists has been called into question and has recently been " the subject renewed discussion and correspondence This difficulty was satisfactorily resolved by the incorporation of the higher figure into a Hygiene Guide for Lead Issued by the American Industrial Hygiene Association Gen- eral acceptance of the third merease in the allowable limit highly advantageous to our membership seems thus assured predicted the LIA Secretary few months LILIA LA IA 1957 When ACGIH's Documentation of Threshold Limit Values was inst published in 1962 the unpublished ASA standard for lead was cited as an important reference Also noted in the paragraph justifying the lead threshold fimit valne TLV was the unreferenced assurance that long industrial experience with 15 mg cm of lead in an did not give rise to urinary lead burdens indicative of harmful exposure ACGIH 1962 State laws incorporating the TEVS included the upwardly revised value after 1957. The Laised himit for lead was adopted in the list of TLVS applicable to S government contractors under regulations Issued pursuant the Healey Public Contracts Act in 1960 Later with OSHA's initial adoption of the 1968 TLVS * 1997 Wiley Inc Letter to the Editor 703 0.2 mg m became the US government limit for lead exposure in general industry in 1971 notari patur y mpwog pry u q papadsar public health official not long before he went to work for the lead industry H.L. Hardy personal communication 1987 In 1944 as Director of the Massachusetts Division of pourdn a on poses poses to art pronary spirpuri~ trojanossy joj Supi stamp rinariuitil nsqo sur spojja q amis santoqiar or i woj Qi ALIMUUTENBALI uonryu^ wopjoiso~ ntsoj troq prioppornajwon 001 ppm to ppm Bowditch Bowditch 1944. Bowditch al 1940 Yzon PI^jo ssouisn~ sis^ i^ jin uishstumtoj irqi am ^ LAMPPUJAHIS^ SSUIOF su DUNTinoqu spijuo jo isan^ jul pan Kou mdsurnui t piodi squ nyurPILQUILLO pur vo^-isenh-in ental bodies 15 of course still with us Abrams et al 1996 Barry Castleman SeD Baltimore MD International Program on Chemical Safety Val Arch Environ Health 51 378- HIDOV 12961 PROfl Documentation Documentation of the Threshold Bruunw HIDDY 194 innt Values Bowditch 1944 in setting threshold limits Ind Med 13 728-730 Bowditch 1957 Thueshold fimt bin lead goes up Lead Hygiene and Safety Bulletin No. 125 to members of the Lead AssociAssaociat tioniAsso ocian tion pupwog IN saying Joyancy Joyancy de PP7711 ITH wojHUPH y oral ZPN 0 OP'S SHORSTHORTNNESM^E^ SSHOMRTN^ESM^ ^ ^ JO TRYFOS HORILLOS WXOL SANIMISYNS DOSA WI industry Hand Hyg Josical 22 25 p~ jno141 smuonaea14 urjogi~jflo proj spampoid s~ umpaanoidjo praq PUBLISHI SMISIONIBS Chicago Nov 6 7. 1958 New York Lead Industries Association pp 34 37 VIT 996 panux panux jodor jo ayi irionasprvi sarzisnpuj IPURENOSSA JOJ at ree pis gy Ap 2.1956 2.1956 2.1956 2.1956 DOX 96 prinquisip qira CurdinsaBuri jonoj mion POPATI V 1961 yprojmA^ jodas oyi fimoides Sjaj o Wamandag D 1957 REFERENCES Abrams HK and 80 authors 1996 Letter to World Health Organiz Gab Tniiiationald abor Olice Caned Nabotrs Enc aorment Peagtuad ate Note Lead Industry Association documents were revealed Bi uotenij 1940 droos pivotu uoneparisi pur qir p jo sprnpixipur pemquiir or praj rund uonsa^ ufuimp Kour ui