Lead industry sues to block OSHA rules The lead industry has reacted swiftly to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration's new restrictions on worker exposure to lead. In what has become a favorite venue for industry to try to block federal regulatory actions, the Lead Industries Association, within minutes of OSHA's announcements of its restrictions, filed a challenge to the rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. The Fifth Circuit is perceived to be a court "friendly" to industry, much in the same way that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is believed to be a bench disposed toward environmental and activist causes. The new OSHA rules call for firms to reduce eight-hour airborne lead concentrations in their plants from the current 200 micrograms per cu m of air to 100 micrograms per cu m within one to three years and to 50 micrograms per cu m within one to 10 years, depending on the type of industry. For example, primary lead producers will have three years to achieve the 100-microgram level, and 10 years to reach 50 micrograms. Lead pigment manufacturers, by comparison, will have only five years to attain the 50-microgram limit. Moreover, employees in lead in-
dustries must undergo periodic blood tests for lead and will be temporarily removed from the job when their blood shows excessive lead levels. The use of chelating agents as prophylaxis against lead intoxication is also proscribed by the OSHA rules. The rules go into effect on Feb. 1,1979. The sharp reductions in lead exposure are needed, OSHA head Eula Bingham insists, because "lead is a pervasive industrial danger. Nearly 1 million American workers are potentially exposed to this substance. . . . These workers are in serious danger of developing irreversible kidney disease or anemia . . . damage to their central nervous system, and possible sterility." Yet in its court challenge, the Lead Industries Association argues that specifying strict limits on airborne lead is not directly related to worker safety. Dr. Jerome F. Cole, the association's director of environmental health, contends the standards are "based on the now-discredited assumption that a worker's blood-lead level can be correlated with, and predicted from, particular air-lead levels." The group claims the cost of the rules—estimated by OSHA to be $3 billion over 10 years—are not worth the perceived benefits, may force some firms to close. •
DOE will push eight energy technologies The Department of Energy has chosen eight energy technologies that it wants to see commercialized as quickly as possible. These areas are technologically ready for the marketplace, says Jackson Gourald, DOE's deputy undersecretary for commercialization, but they now need other kinds of support. The other
DOE calls these technologies ready for commercialization "High" estimates of energy impact, quads 1985 1990
Enhanced oW recovery 2.7 Unconventional gas recovery 1.8 Industrial atmospheric fluidized 0.2 lied coal combustion Low-head hydroelectric
