HSE Seeks Feedback on Proposed Changes to UK Lead Regulation

The United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation—the agency’s term for a request for feedback—regarding proposed changes to the UK’s Control of Lead at Work Regulations, or CLAW. The proposed changes include lowering regulatory blood lead levels, potentially adjusting the frequency of required blood monitoring, and ending a provision that exempts employees who have worked in the lead industry for many years from the blood lead requirements.

For most employees, the proposed changes would lower the blood lead action level from 50 µg/dL to 20 µg/dL by October 2027 and then to 10 µg/dL by October 2029. For workers under 18, the current blood lead action level of 40 µg/dL would move to 20 µg/dL by October 2027 and 10 µg/dL by October 2029. The proposal would also lower the blood lead action level for employees who are capable of conceiving from its current 25 µg/dL to 10 µg/dL by October 2027.

The blood lead level at which most employees must be removed from work, known as the suspension level, would change from its current 60 µg/dL to 30 µg/dL by October 2027 and to 15 µg/dL by October 2029. For young workers, the suspension level would move from 50 µg/dL to 30 µg/dL by October 2027 and to 15 µg/dL by October 2029. The suspension level for workers who are capable of conceiving, currently 30 µg/dL, would be lowered to 7.5 µg/dL by October 2027.

The HSE proposal does not specify changes to the frequency of blood monitoring. Instead, the proposal stipulates that changes to frequency be guided by evidence that arises during the feedback process.

CLAW’s exemption for long-tenured lead-industry workers, known as the long-service employee concession, would be phased out over several years, according to the proposal. The exemption would end in October 2034.

For more information on the HSE consultation, visit the agency’s website. The text of CLAW is available as a PDF.

Related: An article in the current issue of The Synergist discusses exposures to lead and their effects on neurodevelopment among young adults. In the December 2023 issue, an article considers recent and pending regulations on lead exposures in the United States.