With a focus on workplace safety in developing countries, the International Lead Association (ILA), in conjunction with the International Lead Management Center (ILMC), has launched a series of guides for workers and managers. The first guide, “Working Safely with Lead,” explaining in layman’s terms how to manage and minimize the risks of lead exposure and contamination, is available free from the ILA and directly via its website; guides constitute part of ILA’s Lead Action 21 (LA21) program to embed the sustainable development across the global lead-producing industry. The other first series guides include “General Information for Managers and Workers,” “Design of Changing Rooms” and “Washing Facilities, Effluent Control and Monitoring.”
The guides build on recent successes in the industry. One prominent example is the recycling of used batteries – in some countries, well over 90%. Implementation, however, has not always kept pace with the intense growth of lead facilities in industrializing nations.
The ILA supports companies in the mining, smelting, refining and recycling of lead and represents producers of some 3 million tons of lead and nearly two-thirds of lead production in the western world. With offices in the U.S. and U.K., the ILA also provides technical, scientific and communications support focusing on all aspects of the industry safety. www.ila-lead.org
