Recycling of Used Lead-Acid Batteries: Guidelines for Appraisal of Environmental Health Impacts

The general guidelines presented in this report provide a pragmatic framework for designing representative studies and developing uniform sampling guidelines to support estimates of morbidity that are explicitly linked to exposure to land-based contaminants from used lead-acid battery (ULAB) recycling activities. A primary goal is to support environmental burden of disease evaluations, which attempt to attribute health outcomes to specific sources of pollution. The guidelines provide recommendations on the most appropriate and cost-effective sampling and analysis methods to ensure the collection of representative population-level data. Additionally, the guidelines will provide sample-size recommendations for each contaminant, as well as environmental media, biological sampling data, household-survey data, and health-outcome data.