Lead Rulemaking

Background

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I), Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), would like to invite interested stakeholders to participate in a series of meetings to develop recommendations to update the current occupational lead standards and other future strategies to reduce worker lead exposures in the state.

We share a goal of providing a safe and healthy work environment for employees. Business, labor, federal, state and local government representatives have worked hard to prevent occupational exposure to lead. We would like to leverage everyone's experience to prevent further occupational lead exposure.

Workers that work directly with lead or disturb lead are at risk for exposure. Construction workers disturbing paint containing lead during renovation and remodel of structures including bridges and homes face the risk of lead exposure. Workers manufacturing lead acid batteries and soldering on electronics may be exposed to lead. Lead may build up in a worker's body over months and years, potentially causing serious long-term health problems.

In 2013, we received a request to review our lead standards. As a result of the request we established a diverse and representative stakeholder group to discuss our lead standards, and subsequently filed a preproposal (CR-101) with the Washington State Code Reviser in April 2016 to officially begin the rulemaking process. We are currently working with this stakeholder group to determine the scope of our proposed rule changes and will continue working with the group as we begin drafting proposed rule language. Meetings are open to the public and will include representatives from business, labor, and government.

Rule drafts

• New: DRAFT DOSH Lead Rule - April 2018 (1.33 MB PDF).
• Discussion Draft - June 2017 (953 KB PDF).

Upcoming meeting info

• Following the release of the latest rule draft in April 2018, DOSH will hold a series of stakeholder meetings seeking public feedback at L&I’s Tukwila office, located at 12806 Gateway Dr S Tukwila, WA 98168 on the following dates:

  Friday, May 4th – 9am to noon
  Wednesday, May 9th – 9am to noon
  Friday, May 25th – 9am to noon
  
  Additional meeting in June - To Be Announced

DRAFT DOSH Lead Rule - April 2018 (1.33 MB PDF)

Stakeholder letters

• ACOEM Position Statement (793 KB PDF).
• Alliance for Gun Responsibility (300 KB PDF).
• American Industrial Hygiene Association (88 KB PDF).
• Association of Local Public Health Officials (166 KB PDF).
•  Battery Council International Letter (187 KB PDF).
• CenturyLink (59 KB PDF).
• Dept of Environmental & Occupational Health Services, UW School of Public Health (277 KB PDF).
• Grant Count Public Utility Districts (921 KB PDF).
• INND (Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders) (503 KB PDF).
• Pacific Northwest Section Amerian Industrial Hygiene Association (480 KB PDF).
• Public Health – Seattle & King County comments on discussion draft October 2017 (1.2 MB PDF).
• Public Health – Seattle & King County Recommendations, June 2016 (122 KB PDF).
• Public Health Association (75 KB PDF).
• Rulemaking petition from Dr. David Fleming to Governor Jay Inslee (77 KB PDF).
• Rulemaking petition from Dr. David Fleming to L&I (104 KB PDF).
  • L&I's petition response to Dr. David Fleming (825 KB PDF).
• Tacoma-Pierce County rulemaking comments (359 KB PDF).
• University of Cincinniti, College of Medicine (705 KB PDF).
• Washington Poison Center (349 KB PDF).
• Washington Sheriffs Association (240 KB PDF).
• Washington State Dept. of Health (279 KB PDF).

More information and resources

• Lead Safety topic page.
• California Department of Public Health, Blood Lead Levels in California Workers (archive.cdph.ca.gov).
• Introduction to the health effects of lead (2 MB PDF).
• Occupational Lead Exposure Poster (704 KB PDF).
• Occupational Lead Standards - Objective (625 KB PDF).
• Reducing occupational lead exposures: Strengthened standards for a healthy workforce (452 KB PDF).
• Updating Washington State’s Occupational Lead Standards presentation (1 MB PDF).

Previous meeting reports

Oct. 20, 2017

• International Lead Association Presentation (1 MB PDF).
• Battery Council International Presentation (154 KB PDF).

Aug. 31, 2017

• August 31st meeting summary (301 KB PDF).
• Lead rulemaking next steps (257 KB PDF).
• Lead Rulemaking Preliminary Bibliography (327 KB PDF).

Aug. 9, 2017

• Aug. 9 meeting summary (311 KB PDF).

July 18, 2017

• July 18, 2017, meeting summary (223 KB PDF).

June 29, 2017

• First Stakeholder Draft Rule Language (953 KB PDF).
• Significant changes in the First Draft (209 KB PDF).
• Draft Lead Rule Presentation (1.1 MB PPTX).

June 10, 2016

• June 10, 2016, meeting summary (140 KB PDF).
• Rulemaking Status Presentation (255 KB PPTX).
• 2006 Archival DOSH Lead Rulemaking Documents (1.3 MB ZIP)*
  
  *Note: This is NOT a current rulemaking proposal. The documents contained in this folder are from a previous DOSH lead rulemaking effort ending in 2006 that ultimately did not result in the adoption of any rule changes or new rules. We have posted these documents here because the current stakeholder group will be reviewing the previous proposal as part of our current rulemaking effort, but we may or may not decide to incorporate elements of the previous proposal into a new rulemaking proposal.

Feb. 17, 2016

• Feb. 17, 2016, Meeting Summary (34 KB PDF).
• Lead Sampling & Analysis (Phil Peters) (133 KB PDF).
• The DOSH Rulemaking Process (Kevin Walder) (685 KB PDF).
• DOSH Workplace Safety and Health Jurisdiction (Alan Lundeen) (378 KB PDF).

Older meetings

• Materials for the January 2016 meeting (1.51 MB ZIP).
  • Dr. Kosnett's presentation on Lead Exposure (youtu.be).
• Dec. 14, 2015, meeting summary (279 KB PDF).
  • Materials for the Dec. 2015 meeting (2.7 MB ZIP).
• Oct. 21, 2015, meeting summary (116 KB PDF).
  • Materials for the October 2015 meeting (5 MB ZIP).

For additional information about meetings, contact Kevin Walder.

Get updates via email

An email list has been set up for L&I to share information about this workgroup and the meetings. Select the "Lead Safety" topic when you sign up to receive email updates.

Back to top