103 Occupational exposure to lead in French industries, 2013-2022

Introduction Approximately 200,000 French workers are estimated to be exposed to lead in the workplace. Historical analyses of measurement data recorded in the French Colchic database from 1987 to 1999 showed frequent overexposures in industries such as metallurgy and construction. We aimed to evaluate whether these observations remain by analyzing the last 10 years of measurements recoding in this database. Methodology We selected records corresponding to personal measurements of lead and its compounds, with a sampling duration ≥60 minutes and collected between 2013 and 2022. We assessed the proportion of samples by industry and by task above the 8-hours occupational exposure limit (OEL; 100 µg/m3). Results We identified a total of 1547 measurements, with 75th and 95th percentiles of 12 and 240 μg/m3, respectively, compared to 260 and 1560 μg/m3 for 1987-1999 based on 8353 samples. 9% of all samples exceeded the OEL. Specialized construction activities had the highest proportion of samples exceeding the OEL (22%), followed by remediation and other waste management (19%) and manufacturing of non-metallic mineral products (17%). For tasks, 12 of the 19 samples from abrasive blasting exceeded the OEL. Construction tasks associated with insulation (33% exceedance) and demolition (28% exceedance) also had frequent overexposure. Conclusions Despite the overall trend showing decreased exposure levels compared to the 1990s, several industries and tasks show a high potential for overexposure, notably those associated with construction and waste management, which require ongoing prevention efforts.