• Employees may not be exposed to lead at amounts greater than 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air in an eight-hour period.

No employee may be exposed to lead at concentrations greater than 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air (50 μg/m³) averaged over an eight-hour period. If an employee is exposed to lead for more than eight hours in any workday, the permissible exposure limit (PEL), as a time-weighted average (TWA) for that day, must be reduced per the formula in 29 CFR 1910.1025.

When respirators are used to supplement engineering and work practice controls to comply with the PEL and all the requirements for respiratory protection under 1910.1025(f) have been met, employee exposure, for the purpose of determining whether the employer has complied with the PEL, may be considered to be at the level provided by the protection factor of the respirator for those periods the respirator is worn. Those periods may be averaged with exposure levels during periods when respirators are not worn to determine the employee’s daily TWA exposure.

Determine if any employee may be exposed to lead at or above the action level. A representative sample of the exposed employees who the employer reasonably believes are exposed to the greatest airborne concentrations of lead must be taken. If the results show the possibility of any employee exposure at or above the action level, extensive monitoring is required according to 1910.1025.

Whenever there has been a production, process, control, or personnel change which may result in new or additional exposure to lead, or whenever the employer has any other reason to suspect a change which may result in new or additional exposures to lead, additional monitoring must be conducted.