Safety Tips: Protecting Yourself Against The Dangers Of Lead Batteries
Although lead-acid batteries are safe if handled correctly, improper use can expose workers and the public to dangerous levels of the toxic metal, lead. Use battery handling equipment to minimize lead exposure.
1. Recharging and transport
Any time a worker touches a battery there is the risk that a small amount of lead will contaminate the worker's fingers. If the employee doesn't wash hands immediately that lead could be ingested. It takes very small amounts of lead to cause high blood pressure, nerve disorders and other serious medical conditions. Workers should use battery handling equipment rather than manipulating the cells by hand. The equipment minimizes worker exposure to lead contamination as well as the risk of shock and acid burns. Anyone who works with batteries should wear approved gloves to protect them from heavy metals and acids, and should wash their hands immediately if bare skin comes into contact with these dangerous materials.
2. Washing batteries
Terminals become contaminated with corrosion over time, especially if the cells are not well maintained. The buildup reduces battery charge, shortens useful life, and can damage forklifts or other equipment. The deposits are acidic so pose a risk to workers as well. Specialized battery handling equipment designed to wash batteries removes the corrosion quickly and safely, but this opens up the problem of what to do with the wastewater. Battery wash wastewater will be contaminated with lead and other heavy metals. This water cannot simply be dumped down the drain as it will contaminate the local water supply. Lead poses a serious health problem to your workers but children are at an even greater risk. If heavy metals get into drinking water then it can affect brain and organ development in growing children. Look for battery handling equipment that not only washes the cells but recovers lead and other heavy metals for safe disposal.
3. Recycling
No matter how carefully you care for your batteries they will eventually reach a point where they can't hold a charge for any length of time. Lead-acid cells are inexpensive to replace, but the old cells can't be disposed of in a landfill. Over time the heavy metals would leech into the soil, into the water table, and into the drinking water of the surrounding community. Lead-acid batteries should be taken to approved recycling centers so the heavy metals can be recovered and processed for reuse. Lead recycling in the U.S. supplies over half the lead supply, an initiative that owes its existence to an automotive industry that championed lead recycling long before it was the popular cause it is today.
Lead is dangerous but that doesn't mean it actually has to pose a risk. Implement smart work and safety policies, use specialized battery handling equipment, and recycle the power cells when they have reached end of life to ensure no lead contaminates the environment.