AIHce 2015 PBZ monitoing and wipe sampling for lead

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Personal breathing zone exposure monitoring
and surface contamination study of Lead at an
indoor firing range
Prasanth.K, Deputy Project Manager, India
International Safety Systems, Inc. (ISS), India

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AGENDA
Background on indoor firing range
Test Environment and Activity
Methods and Evaluation criteria
Results and Observations
Lessons Learned
Recommendations

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Background
Indoor firing ranges used for
Shooting practice (Person inside firing range)
Testing Kevlar material (Person can be outside)
Potential Hazards (Noise and Lead)
Bullets are loaded with gunpowder and have
Lead based primer.

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Lead vaporized due to heat and pressure
within the cartridge (at the firing instance).
The heat of the reaction and cooling results in
formation of lead particles at
Source
Bullet trap
Path way

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Test Environment and Activity
Indoor firing range had:
Heating and Ventilated Air Circulation (HVAC) system
(2 supply ducts from top and 4 return ducts from side
walls) with 20 air changes per hour
Acoustic enclosure
Bullet traps
Operator places Kevlar material at test stand and
loads the barrel with bullet and trigger is pulled
from outside the room.

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Operator used apron and single pair of Nitrile
gloves
Test centre cleaned daily with dry mop
followed by wet mop.

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Objective of study
To identify eight-hour/full shift personal
breathing zone exposure to lead particulates for
operator testing the kevlar by firing bullets in an
Indoor firing range.
To evaluate the level of surface contamination
due to the deposition of lead particulates.

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Method and Sampling Strategy
Air sampling
 Three samples collected using Modified NIOSH 7300;
Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma-Atomic Emission
Spectrometry (ICP-AES)
 Sampling media: 37mm Matched Weight (MW) Mixed
Cellulose Ester (MCE) filter
 Sampling flow rate: 4 litres/minute
 Sampling duration: 7 hours. (Not sampled during lunch
break)
 Two filters used for 3.5 hours each to avoid overloading
of particulates on filter.

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Wipe sampling
 Modified NIOSH 9102 (ICP-AES)
 Sampling media: Moistened Lead Dust sampling wipe
 Wipe samples collected before start of the activity
(beginning of shift) after completion of activity (end of
shift)
 Wipe samples collected at 11 locations over an area of
100 cm2

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Evaluation Criteria
Air samples
 Eight-Hour Time Weighted Average (TWA) exposure
compared with ACGIH TLV-TWA of 0.05 mg/m3 (50
μg/m3)
Wipe samples
 OSHA guideline for a level of acceptable lead loading
for non-lead work areas of 0.2 μg/cm2. (Legally not
applicable).

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Results and observations
Range of Personal Breathing Zone exposure – 1.0
µg/m3 to 1.7 µg/m3
Exposure varies:
Based on the number of bullets fired.
Duration of person inside the firing range.
Wipe samples results at beginning of shift - 0.02
µg/cm2 to 4.1 µg/cm2
Wipe samples results at end of shift – 0.13
µg/cm2 to 38 µg/cm2

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Lessons Learnt
Employee exposure, without regard to use of
respirator was below 10% of ACGIH TLV-TWA.
The surface contamination level increased by
10 folds, after firing of bullets.
Potential for ingestion risk exists due to
surface contamination.

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Recommendations
Clean all surfaces effectively with the use of a
High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter
vacuum cleaner.
Use dual pair of disposable nitrile gloves before
contacting potential contaminated surfaces.
Remove the outer pair of gloves after it is
contaminated.
Avoid touching of door handles with
contaminated gloves

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References
• Indoor Firing Ranges Industrial Hygiene
Technical Guide (Navy Environmental Health Center)

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Thank You!
Any questions ?
Prasanth K.
Prasanth.k@issehs.com

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