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Field case · battery factory worker · April 2026

Her blood-lead was 34. Eighteen months later it was 17.

Janelle works in a lead-acid battery plant. Her annual blood-lead test came back at 34 µg/dL, three times the level OSHA flags for medical removal. Her workplace was already running air monitoring. The numbers were within range. The lead had to be coming from somewhere. So she brought a FluoroSpec kit to her shift and tested the surfaces she touches every day.

DetectLead · Documented April 2026 · Submitted by Janelle (worker)

This page is a use case. It is not a complaint, an accusation, or a regulatory filing. Janelle is still an employee. The company is not named. The point is what a 30-second surface test made visible that a year of air sampling did not.

Her blood-lead level (BLL), measured at her annual occupational physical, was 34 µg/dL. For context, the CDC reference value for adults with concerns is 3.5. Anything over 5 prompts case management in most states. OSHA general-industry triggers medical removal for anyone over 50, or anyone over 40 if a second test in six months stays elevated. 34 is a number you take home and look at on your kitchen table.

Her plant runs air sampling on the schedule the lead standard requires. Those samples were inside the permissible exposure limit. So the question Janelle was sitting with was not "am I being exposed." It was "where, exactly, is the dose coming from." Air sampling tells you the average concentration in a zone over a shift. It does not tell you which specific things in that zone are loaded with lead, and which are clean.

FluoroSpec answers a different question. One drop on a surface, 365 nm UV light, anything that fluoresces green is lead. So she walked her shift route and tested.

Shower head photographed under UV light showing intense bright cyan-green fluorescence indicating heavy lead deposit.
The shower in the change room, used by every worker before going home. One drop, UV light, the entire fixture lights up.

What she found

The handles, the latches, the buttons. The places where hands and surfaces meet, all day, every shift.

Door handle and push plate fluorescing green under UV.
Main shop entry door handle.
Door handle with bright green fluorescent splotches.
Same handle, closer. The fluorescing area runs along the curve where palms grip.
Different door handle with green fluorescence in the grip area.
A second door, same pattern.
Door latch and strike plate showing strong blue-green fluorescence.
Bathroom door latch and strike plate.
Elevator button panel with visible red-brown dust under regular light.
Elevator buttons, normal light. The reddish-brown haze around the buttons is consistent with lead oxide, the active material in lead-acid battery paste.
Engraved arrow on a keypad fluorescing green under UV inside the engraving.
Engraved arrow on a control panel. The recess holds dust the buttons themselves do not.
Metal ledge surface with green fluorescent splotch and surrounding particulate dust.
A horizontal ledge in a passageway. People lean here.
Respirator cartridge mesh under UV showing a single green fluorescent dot.
A spent respirator cartridge, broken open and tested. One green dot inside the mesh.

The mask

Inside of a blue silicone respirator mask, the surface that contacts the wearer's face, showing faint cyan-blue fluorescence.
Inside surface of her respirator. The blue silicone is the part that seals against her nose and mouth. The faint fluorescence is on the inside of the seal.

What changed after she could see it

Once Janelle had the surface map, she changed her own behavior, and she had something concrete to show her shift supervisor and the plant's industrial hygienist. Specifically:

  • She started wiping the inside of her respirator before donning, every shift.
  • She stopped using the contaminated change-room shower until the fixture was deep-cleaned, and she pushed for it to be replaced.
  • She raised the door-handle and elevator-button findings with the hygienist. The plant added intermediate-shift wipe-downs of the high-touch surfaces.
  • She changed at work, bagged her work clothes, and washed them separately at home. (NIOSH take-home guidance.)
  • She added a daily after-shift handwashing protocol with a lead-removing soap before any food or drink.

Eighteen months later, her annual BLL came back at 17 µg/dL. Half of where it was. Still above where it should be, but on the right slope.

Before · April 2024
34µg/dL · medical-removal-adjacent
Now · April 2026
17µg/dL · still elevated, half the dose
Tooling cost
$75kit + her time documenting

Why this is a useful case

Her plant's air monitoring program was doing what it was designed to do. The numbers were inside the limit. The blood-lead test caught the dose, but it took a year to come back, and it could not tell her where the dose was coming from. The piece that was missing was a way to look at any specific surface and answer the question "is this thing the source." That gap is what FluoroSpec fills.

Janelle's blood-lead drop is not the FluoroSpec kit's achievement. It is hers. The kit gave her a way to see the problem so she could act on it. That is the use case.

If you work somewhere similar

If you work in a lead industry (battery, smelter, foundry, brass, paint, ammunition, scrap-metal, mining, construction, or any environment where you suspect lead is part of the process) and you want to do what Janelle did, email me. I will send you a kit at no cost. The data you generate is yours. You can keep it private, share it with your hygienist, or send it to me anonymized for documentation.

The point is not commerce. The point is that workers should be able to answer "where, specifically, is the lead" without having to wait a year for a blood test.

If this is your situation

Free kit for any worker in a lead industry.

Email me directly. Include your role and what you want to test. I will not share your name with your employer or anyone else.

eric@detectlead.com →

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