Taking Work Home: Lead Dust and the Impact on Reproductive Health

Lead exposure can lead to a range of health effects in humans.  While lead can affect multiple organ systems, the most critical and sensitive endpoints are the reproductive and neurological effects lead exposure can have in men, women and children.  Exposure to lead has been associated with harmful reproductive health effects in both men and women and has historically been associated with significant risks during pregnancy, to fetal development and child health.  

Although sources of lead exposure have decreased over the years with the removal of lead from gasoline and interior paint, concern still exists in homes, schools and workplaces.  For a detailed listing of occupations where workers may be exposed visit the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Lead can enter the body in two ways - by breathing in lead dust or fumes, or swallowing.   The potential for an employee to take lead home to their family members in the form of lead dust has been identified as a childhood lead poisoning concern. 

There is much that employers can do to help protect their employees from taking lead home to their families:

•  Instruct employees to remove all protective clothing, including shoes before they leave the workplace
• Lead contaminated clothes should be laundered at work; not at home
• Provide suitable showers, change rooms or other facilities
• Inform employees of importance of showering, including washing of hair and cleaning of hands
• Separate storage area for personal clean clothes from ‘dirty’ area
• Workers should not eat in an area of the workplace contaminated by lead

For more detailed information on preventing lead exposure at work visit:

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Health Canada – Effects of Lead on Human Health 

Work Safe BC – Lead:  Preventing Exposure at Work

Work Safe Alberta – Workplace Health and Safety Bulletin

United States Department of Labor – Occupational Safety & Health Administration

If you would like more information on this topic, please contact Project Health at 519-883-2287.

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