Lead

The University of Kentucky is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy environment for all students, faculty, staff, and visitors. To support this commitment, the university has implemented a comprehensive lead safety program designed to identify, monitor, and manage potential lead hazards across campus facilities and operations.

Lead-related hazards on campus generally fall into two main categories:

1. Lead in Building Materials – including lead-based paint, plumbing systems, water pipes, and related fixtures, particularly in older structures.
2. Occupational and Research Use of Lead – such as lead solder, ammunition, radiation shielding, and laboratory or studio use of organic or inorganic lead compounds.

Through proactive assessment, risk management, and compliance with regulatory standards, the university strives to minimize lead exposure and ensure the well-being of the campus community.

Lead-based paint is defined as any paint which contains lead in excess of one milligram per square centimeter, or >0.5% by weight.  Lead-based paint can be present in campus buildings that were built before 1978, when the Consumer Products Safety Commission banned the use of all paints in residential and public buildings that contain greater than 0.06% lead. 

The UK Environmental Management Department (EMD) performs extensive testing and inspection of buildings in order to “map” the presence and condition of lead-based paint.  Special attention is given to facilities that are, or have the potential to be, occupied by children <6 years of age, who are particularly susceptible to neurological insult from ingestion of lead.

EMD also reviews and approves all construction, demolition, and renovation projects that could potentially disturb any paint that contains lead. For information on the Lead-Based Paint Management Program, click here.

Potential sources of lead in campus drinking water are the following: lead pipe, lead solder and leaded brass fittings. Lead pipe and lead solder were banned in 1986 by amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act has reduced the acceptable levels of lead in “lead-free” pipes, fittings, and fixtures from 8.0% to 0.25% as of January 4, 2014.

The EPA Lead and Copper Rule also requires public water utilities such as Kentucky American Water Company (KAW, the water utility for Lexington-Fayette) to include corrosion control in their water treatment protocol sufficient to prevent lead leaching from pipes, solder or fittings.  The rule requires KAW to test a representative sample of buildings periodically, to prove they are in compliance.  KAW has passed all Lead and Copper Rule tests.

While there could be older pipes or fixtures within specific campus buildings that contain lead, periodic flushing of water systems plus corrosion control treatment techniques mean that lead levels above the EPA action level of 15 parts per billion are highly unlikely.

For additional information on lead in drinking water, please refer to KAW's "Frequently Asked Questions on Water Quality". KAW or the UK Environmental Management Department can perform drinking water testing if a justifiable request is received.

UK Health & Safety (UKHS) is responsible for the safety of all other uses of lead on-campus.  UKHS performs periodic air and surface wipe sampling during these processes, and ensures that affected persons are trained on the safe use of these products.  Examples:

• Exposure to lead fumes or surface lead contamination from discharge of ammunition during practice/training (UK Rifle personnel, UKPD);
• Use of lead solder in electronics assembly and repair;
• Use and manipulation of lead bricks and shields in areas where radionuclides are used;
• Use of elemental lead and inorganic or organic lead compounds in laboratories or the arts.

For personnel who could be exposed to airborne lead, UKHS monitors all tasks to quantify exposures and ensure they are below the current OSHA permissible exposure limits (PELs).  If exposures above any PEL are documented, UKHS along with the affected department and University Health Services will take all necessary steps to reduce exposures:

• engineering controls
• product substitution
• work practice controls
• personal protective equipment
• medical removal protection if necessitated by elevated blood lead levels

The current OSHA PELs for lead and lead compounds are the following:

• 50 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) for elemental lead, inorganic lead compounds, and organic lead soaps;
• 75 ug/m3 as an 8-hour TWA for tetraethyl and tetramethyl lead.

UKHS also performs surface wipe sampling for lead, using NIOSH Method 9102.  This helps ensure that hygiene requirements are being met in laboratories, ranges, studios, and other areas where surface lead contamination is possible.

Contact Lee Poore at UKHS if you have any questions about laboratory or workplace exposures to lead and lead compounds.