For construction workers who disturb lead paint or work with lead: recognize lead tasks and health effects, know the interim protection you get before exposure is measured, use respirators and protective clothing right, keep lead off you and out of your home, and know your monitoring, medical and removal rights.
Based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926.62 (lead, construction) · about 7 min read
Need proof of training? The full course (25 min) adds practice questions, a job scenario, the final quiz and a certificate your employer can verify.
The lead rule covers all construction work where you may be exposed to lead on the job, including painting and decorating. Examples include:
Demolition or salvage of structures where lead is present
Removal or encapsulation of materials containing lead
New construction, alteration, repair or renovation of structures that contain lead
Installation of products containing lead
Lead contamination/emergency cleanup
Transportation, disposal, storage or containment of lead on the construction site
Maintenance operations associated with these construction activities
Health effects
Your training must address at least these lead hazards:
Reproductive / developmental toxicity
Central nervous system effects
Kidney effects
Blood effects
Acute toxicity effects
Two numbers to know
Action level: 30 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air, as an 8-hour average, measured without regard to respirators.
Permissible exposure limit (PEL): 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an 8-hour period. Your employer must keep you at or below it. If you are exposed to lead for more than 8 hours in any work day, your allowable exposure for that day is reduced: 400 divided by the hours worked in the day, in micrograms per cubic meter.
Some tasks are so likely to create lead exposure that, where lead is present, your employer must treat you as overexposed until an exposure assessment documents otherwise. The rule groups them by how high the assumed exposure is:
Assumed above the PEL (and not above 10 times the PEL)Where lead coatings or paint are present: manual demolition (e.g. drywall), manual scraping, manual sanding, heat gun use, and power tool cleaning with dust collection. Also spray painting with lead paint.
Assumed above 500 µg/m³Using lead-containing mortar; lead burning. Where lead coatings or paint are present: rivet busting, power tool cleaning without dust collection, cleanup with dry expendable abrasives, and moving or removing abrasive blasting enclosures.
Assumed above 2,500 µg/m³Where lead coatings or paint are present on structures: abrasive blasting, welding, cutting and torch burning.
Other tasks are also treated as above the PEL where there is any reason to believe the worker may be exposed above it.
Interim protection you must get
Until your actual exposure is determined, your employer must provide for these tasks:
Appropriate respiratory protection
Appropriate protective clothing and equipment
Change areas
Hand washing facilities
Blood testing for lead and zinc protoporphyrin
Training on hazard communication, on respirator use, and in accordance with 29 CFR 1926.21, Safety training and education
Your employer provides an appropriate respirator. Respirators must be used during:
Periods when your exposure to lead exceeds the PEL
Work where engineering and work-practice controls are not enough to get exposure to or below the PEL
Periods when you request a respirator
The interim protection period for trigger tasks
Selection
Your employer selects and provides the appropriate respirators specified in 29 CFR 1910.134(d)(3)(i)(A).
Air-purifying respirators (powered and non-powered) get HEPA filters.
A full facepiece instead of a half mask is provided for lead aerosols that may cause eye or skin irritation at the use concentrations.
If you choose a powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR) and it gives adequate protection, your employer must provide it.
If you have breathing difficulty during fit testing or while wearing a respirator, your employer must provide a medical examination to determine whether you can use one.
Where required (including during interim protection), your employer provides protective work clothing and equipment at no cost to you and makes sure you use it, such as:
Coveralls or similar full-body work clothing
Gloves, hats, and shoes or disposable shoe coverlets
Face shields, vented goggles or other appropriate eye and face protection
Keep the lead at work
Take protective clothing off at the end of the shift only in the change area.
Dirty clothing to be cleaned, laundered or thrown away goes in a closed container in the change area.
Do not remove lead from clothing by blowing or shaking it, or any other way that puts lead in the air.
Do not leave the workplace wearing protective clothing or equipment required during the shift.
Keep all surfaces as free as practicable of lead build-up.
Clean floors and other surfaces by vacuuming or other methods that minimize lead becoming airborne, wherever possible.
Vacuums must have HEPA filters and be used and emptied in a way that minimizes lead getting back into the workplace.
Shoveling, dry or wet sweeping, and brushing may be used only where vacuuming or other equally effective methods have been tried and found not to be effective.
Compressed air may not be used to remove lead from any surface unless it is used with a ventilation system designed to capture the dust it creates.
In areas where exposure is above the PEL, no food or drink is present or consumed, no tobacco products are present or used, and no cosmetics are applied.
If your exposure is above the PEL, wash your hands and face before eating, drinking, smoking or applying cosmetics.
Do not enter the lunch or eating area in protective clothing unless surface lead dust has been removed by vacuuming, a downdraft booth or another method that limits spreading the dust.
Change areas have separate storage for work clothing and street clothes, so they do not cross-contaminate.
Your employer must provide shower facilities, where feasible, for employees whose airborne exposure is above the PEL. Where showers are available, shower at the end of the shift. Where showers are not provided, wash your hands and face at the end of the shift.
In each work area where exposure is above the PEL, your employer posts this sign:
DANGER LEAD WORK AREA MAY DAMAGE FERTILITY OR THE UNBORN CHILD CAUSES DAMAGE TO THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM DO NOT EAT, DRINK OR SMOKE IN THIS AREA
Your monitoring results
As soon as possible, but no later than 5 working days after receiving air monitoring results, your employer must tell you the results in writing or post them where you can see them. If the results are at or above the PEL, the notice must say so and describe the corrective action taken or to be taken.
Your employer must also make a copy of the lead standard and its appendices readily available to you.
If you are exposed on any day at or above the action level, your employer must make initial medical surveillance available: a blood test for lead and zinc protoporphyrin.
Required medical surveillance is provided without cost to you, at a reasonable time and place.
Medical removal: if a periodic and a follow-up blood test both show a blood lead level at or above 50 µg/dl, your employer must remove you from work with exposure at or above the action level. You return to your former job status when two consecutive blood tests show a level below 40 µg/dl.
While removed, you get up to 18 months of medical removal protection benefits each time: as long as your former job continues, your employer maintains your total normal earnings, seniority and other employment rights and benefits.
Chelating agents (drugs that pull lead from the body) should not routinely be used to remove lead and should not be used at all except under the direction of a licensed physician.
Fact-checked against the regulation text on October 09, 2026. This certificate records completion of awareness training based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926.62. It is not an OSHA card or license, and it does not by itself meet the training requirements of 29 CFR 1926.62(l). Your employer must still include lead in its hazard communication program; train each employee who is subject to exposure to lead at or above the action level on any day, or to lead compounds which may cause skin or eye irritation, in a training program that covers every item listed in 1926.62(l)(2), including the specific operations at your job that could result in exposure above the action level, the purpose, proper selection, fitting, use and limitations of respirators, and the contents of any compliance plan in effect; provide that training as initial training prior to the time of job assignment; and provide it at least annually for each employee who is subject to lead exposure at or above the action level on any day.
This guide explains the rule in plain words. Always read the regulation itself and your employer's site-specific procedures.