§ Lord AVEBURYasked Her Majesty's Government:
On what evidence the Health and Safety Executive decided last year that for women of child-bearing age in industry the permitted blood lead levels should be 40 mg/100 ml compared with 80 mg/100 ml for men.
The EARL of GOWRIEI am informed by the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission that the Commission's proposals, published in a consultative document entitled,Control of Lead at Work: Draft Regulations and Draft Approved Code of Practice in 1978, are based on the recommendation of a joint Health and Safety Executive and Medical Research Council Working Group on Lead, consisting of experts in the field. The proposals accord with the views of international experts attending the second International Workshop on permissible levels of occupational exposure to inorganic lead held in Amsterdam in September 1976, recorded by R. L. Zielhuis in the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health (number 39, 1977, pages 59 to 72).
The lower figure of 40 micrograms of lead per 100 millilitres of blood for women of child-bearing capacity, compared to 80 micrograms of lead per 100 millilitres of blood for other persons occupationally exposed to lead, is intended to afford protection to a developing foetus from the effects of lead absorbed by the mother as a result of occupational exposure.