On Wed, 19 May 2004 13:38:07 -0700, "Charles Spitzer"
bubbled forth the following:

references? i work in the stained glass industry. it's pretty commonly known
that almost all lead is ingested or inhaled. osha doesn't require gloves
when working with lead, although they do require, in certain cases,
respirators.

in actuality, the only reference to skin in the osha regulation is because
of possible skin irritation and not absorption.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owad...RDS&p_id=10030

From http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/lead/

"Most exposures occur with inorganic lead. Organic (tetraethyl and
tetramethyl) lead, which was added to gasoline up until the late
1970s, is not commonly encountered. Organic forms may be absorbed
through the skin, while inorganic forms cannot."

However the ERP says recent research indicates that inorganic lead may
be absorbed thru the skin. They do not list references though.

See this page under Dermal Absorption:
http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/leadsafe/leadinf3.htm

Further, this article from the "Journal of the Australasian College of
Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, Vol. 15, No. 2, December 1996,
pages 11-12." shows that inorganic lead can be absorbed through the
skin, and even worse, lead absorbed this way may not show up in the
blood:
"By applying solutions of the stable lead isotope Pb-204 to the skin
of volunteers and measuring the increase in Pb-204 in blood, we were
able to show that skin-absorbed lead has a very short residence time
in blood3. The ability of lead salts to enter the body through the
skin without significantly raising blood lead has important
implications for occupational health control, because measurement of
lead in blood is the prime technique for monitoring lead exposure.
Surveys of workers in lead industries such as lead battery manufacture
showed that many of them had very high levels of lead in sweat, even
those who had retired or who had been away on leave for several
weeks1. Workers in lead industries often wear masks to avoid
inhalation of lead, but rarely have skin protection. Some lead battery
workers have their skin covered with a layer of finely powdered
lead/metal oxide1. Both lead metal and lead oxide were found to
dissolve in sweat and pass through the skin1-3."

The full article is he
http://www.acnem.org/journal/15-2_de...on_of_lead.htm

I always thought the main danger from handling lead is that particles
that adhere to the skin may be ingested or inhaled by touching the
mouth or nose, or via transfer to a cigarette, then inhaled. Looks
like we may have to re-think that.

HTH

Jerry