1. No, but you find the following of interest. The use of sweat to monitor lead absorption through the skin. Lilley SG, Florence TM, Stauber JL. SourceCSIRO Division of Fuel Technology, NSW, Australia. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3238426 Abstract It is usually assumed that lead can be absorbed through the skin only if it is present as an organolead compound such as tetraethyllead or lead naphthanate. It has been found, however, that finely-powdered lead metal or lead nitrate solution placed on the skin results in rapid absorption of lead, and transport of the metal around the body. The absorbed lead appears in sweat and saliva, but not in blood or urine. The application of 6 mg of lead as 0.5 M lead nitrate to the left arm resulted in an increase in lead concentration in pilocarpine-induced iontophoresis sweat samples taken from the right arm, from an initial value of 15-25 micrograms Pbl-1 to greater than 300 micrograms Pbl-1 after 2 days. Saliva lead increased from 2.5 to 15 micrograms Pbl-1 in the same period. The rate of lead absorption through the skin increases with increased sweating of the skin. Since no measurable increase in blood lead has been found, the lead must be transported in the plasma and rapidly concentrated into the extracellular fluid pool (sweat and saliva), without significant uptake by the erythrocytes, and with a very low transient concentration in the plasma. Workers occupationally exposed to lead have extremely high levels of lead in sweat even though their lead in blood is only moderately elevated. Lead absorbed through the skin may be eliminated via sweat and other extracellular fluids, and hence not be as great a health hazard as ingested lead, but this will need to be proved by further studies. 2. No 3. They were gloves but I still hope they wash their hands before they eat! Bev -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Douglas Pauls Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 11:03 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Hand Wipes and Lead Residues Good morning all, I just had a chat with one of our ES&H engineers, a very pleasent young lady, on the topic of hand wipes and lead residues. Was I aware of any industry studies on the efficiency of hand wipes marketed at removing lead residues, presumably from contact with cored wire solder? I was not aware of any. I am always instantly suspicious of ANYTHING that marketers touch. I am of the opinion that good old fashioned hand washing with soap and water is as effective as anything, but there are areas here where we are pretty sure our operators go straight from the bench to lunch without that step. So, I turn to my favorite source of information. 1. Are you aware of any industrial hygiene studies regarding transferrence of lead to the hand, and/or the efficiency of "lead removal wipes" in removing residues. 2. In your facilities, do you use these kinds of wipes? 3. If not, what measures do you normally use for operators cleaning hands to remove potentially harmful material? I will probably discuss this with our crackerjack metallurgist when he returns from travel tomorrow, but thought I would ask in the mean time. Doug Pauls ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 16.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives For additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. 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