Research
The Consortium supports the use of sound science in regulatory submissions and policy measures.Current and recent activity
Although lead and lead compounds are some of the most studied substances in commerce, since 2000 the lead industry – through the Lead REACH Consortium – has invested more than €3 million in independent research into the health and environmental impacts of lead.
Industry sponsored scientific research has been fundamental in enhancing the understanding of the risks to human health and the environment presented by exposure to lead and has been used extensively in documents, including the REACH Chemical Safety Reports for the Consortium’s substances.
As well as commissioning its own research where required to support its members REACH Registration compliance, the Consortium regularly screens scientific journals for relevant new publications, and carries out assessments of published papers, including literature reviews against specific REACH and CLP endpoints.
Recent highlights of the research programme sponsored by the Consortium include:
Health
SPHERL: Study for Promotion of Health in Recycling Lead
SPHERL was a major, innovative epidemiology study on the effects of occupational exposure of lead. This unique longitudinal medical surveillance study followed 500 new hires over 1-year, 2-year, and 6-year periods, assessing changes to blood pressure, renal function, peripheral nerve conductivity, neurocognitive performance and general quality of life as a function of exposure as measured by blood lead levels. The project has resulted in more than 15 peer reviewed publications and has demonstrated no adverse effects on key cardiovascular, neurological, or renal health outcomes as mean blood lead levels increased 4-fold from background (non-occupationally exposed) concentrations. Further details of the study can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Study of Air Lead-Blood Lead Relationship
In a recent study, Li et al. (2024) provide an updated analysis of the air lead-blood lead relationship in battery manufacturing facility workers that relates directly to the basis for deriving air lead limits. The analysis addressed shortcomings in older studies, adjusting for confounders such as age, sex, job department, time trend, tenure, and seasonality and accounting for repeated measurements within workers. The relationship reported by Li et al. is more than seven times lower than the estimate used to derive the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists’ 2001 threshold limit value (TLV), an important finding indicating that there would be no increased benefit to lowering the current TLV.
Environment
Lymnaea stagnalis
A study investigating the chronic toxicity of the soluble lead ion to L. stagnalis, carried out according to the OECD 243 protocol, performed under standardised conditions more applicable to classification under CLP. This study concluded that there were no statistically significant adverse effects on reproduction, growth, and survival of the great pond snail, at any of the exposure concentrations tested, and indicated an overall NOEC of dissolved Pb of >=110 μg/L.
Biotic ligand models
The completion of many new studies on the environmental fate and effect of lead and the development of biotic ligand models to predict more accurately the toxicity of lead to freshwater species under different environmental conditions. This research has been published by partners in peer reviewed scientific journals to ensure that findings are shared with all stakeholders (including the scientific and regulatory communities) and has been used to extensively update risk assessments presented in Chemical Safety Reports of REACH registration dossiers of lead metal and compounds.
MEED: Metals Environmental Exposure Data
The Consortium is Sponsor of MEED, a multi-metallic programme on metal environmental exposures covering six interlinked projects designed to improve knowledge relating to regional exposures, sewage treatment plants (STPs), ecorelevance, and mixture effects, and combined toxicity.
General
Endocrine disruption: a literature review
A review of information available in published literature on possible endocrine activity of lead substances was carried out in light of the new hazard classes in the CLP Regulation. A copy of the report is available to members on request.
A full list of publications resulting from industry-sponsored research projects since 2006 is available on the ILA website.
Future work
The Lead REACH Consortium continues to assess research necessary to ensure that its REACH Registration dossiers remain the most up-to-date resource of health and environmental effects of lead metal and compounds. Future work will take into consideration any new information requirements under the REACH Revision, as relevant to the Consortium’s substances.