Lead audit checklist

Is a lead process being carried out at this workplace? (See definition of a lead process in Schedule 18 of the Regulation)

Has the MSDS been obtained?

Is a copy of the MSDS close to where the lead is being used?

Is there a lead register?

Is a copy of the lead MSDS placed in the register?

Are exposed workers allowed to inspect the register?

Are containers correctly labelled, including where it is transferred to a second container?

Has a risk assessment been conducted?

Does it include:

• An identification of the lead used at the workplace?

• A review of the MSDS or if the MSDS is not available, a review of equivalent information?

• If the substance is in a consumer package, a review of the package's label?

• A decision about whether a job in a lead-risk process is a lead-risk job?

• A decision on atmospheric monitoring and control measures?

• Is the risk assessment done annually if, in the last assessment, the process was assessed to include a lead-risk job?

• Has the employer notified Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, in the approved form within 28 days of the assessment, that the process includes a lead-risk job?

• Is the risk assessment done every five years if, in the last assessment, the process was assessed not to include a lead-risk job?

• If the process can be changed to a process that does not include a lead-risk job, has a plan been developed to do that?

• If the process cannot be changed to a non lead-risk job, has a plan been developed to minimise the risk to health from lead?

• Is the plan as above been developed in consultation with workers and workplace representatives?

• Does the plan contain specific aims and ways of deciding whether aims are being achieved?

Has exposure been controlled and how?

Is exposure less than the national exposure standard for lead?

Is exposure controlled, as far as is practicable, by ways other than by the use of PPE?

Are control measures, including engineering controls, safe work practices effectively maintained?

Does the employer ensure the following:

• Lead used in the lead process area does not, as far as is practicable, contaminate other areas of the workplace?

• Workers are not exposed to the risk of lead in an area provided by the employer for eating and drinking?

• Workers wash their forearms, hands and face at the washing facility before eating and drinking?

• No one eats, chews gum, smokes or carries anything used for smoking in a lead process area?

• No one in a lead process area drinks from anything other than a drinking facility that is made free from lead contamination?

• That the workplace is cleaned of lead?

• The lead process area is not cleaned by compressed air or other compressed gas or dry sweeping?

• A shower facility is provided?

• A worker does not take lead contaminated clothing home for laundering?

• Lead contaminated clothing is laundered?

If exposure cannot be controlled other than by PPE, is appropriate PPE provided?

Are workers properly instructed in the use of PPE?

Are systems in place to ensure that workers use PPE when being exposed to lead?

Have warning signs been erected showing the need to wear the PPE in the lead process area?

Is PPE maintained?

Has monitoring been conducted?

Have monitoring results been recorded?

Is health surveillance conducted?

Is health surveillance conducted for workers:

• Before they start work in a lead-risk job?

• One month, three months and then six months after the worker starts work?

• Is health surveillance conducted by a designated doctor?

• Has the employer asked the designated doctor to give the employer and the worker the health surveillance report as soon as possible after it is done?

• Does the designated doctor give the worker the results of biological monitoring?

• Has the employer notified Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, in the approved form, of the results of the health surveillance within 6 months of receiving the report?

• Does the employer pay for the health surveillance of workers?

If the worker is required to be removed from a lead-risk job because of elevated blood lead levels, does the employer:

• Identify how the worker was exposed to the lead?

• Review the control measures?

• Control the exposure?

Is a worker removed from a lead-risk job when the designated doctor recommends removal because of the following:

• Elevated blood lead levels?

• Medical condition that may be adversely affected by exposure to lead?

• Is pregnant or breast-feeding?

• Has a worker, in the opinion of the employer or worker ever been exposed to an excessive level of lead?

• Did the employer remove the worker from a lead-risk job?

• Was health surveillance conducted within 7 days of exposure?

Does the employer ensure that the worker is not returned to a lead-risk job until the designated doctor advises the worker may return?

Does the employer disclose the contents of a worker's medical record to anyone other than the worker, without the worker's written consent?

Is induction and ongoing training provided?

Are records kept of:

• Workers who work in a lead-risk job – 30 years?

• The risk assessment record of a job that has been assessed as a lead-risk job – 30 years?

• Monitoring results – 30 years?

• Health surveillance report – 30 years?

• A record of the date when a person was removed from, or returned to, the lead-risk job – 30 years?

• The risk assessment record of a process that does not include a lead-risk job – 5 years?

• Induction and training – 5 years?

The date when the assessment was done?

The results of the atmospheric monitoring?

Whether the process was assessed to include a lead-risk job?

The lead's product name or other identification?

The control measures that were in place when the assessment was done?

The date of the session?

The topics dealt with at the session?

The name of the person who conducted the session?

The names of the workers who attended the session?