A lawsuit filed in Minnesota is drawing renewed attention to how industrial lead exposure can follow workers home, even after their shifts end.
According to families in Eagan, Minnesota, toxic dust wasn’t contained inside a local battery-recycling facility, and children ultimately suffered the consequences.
What happened?
At the center of the case is Gopher Resource, a corporation that runs a lead-acid battery recycling plant in Eagan. Several families allege that lead left the facility on workers’ clothes, shoes, and other belongings and later exposed children at home, MinneapolisMedia News reported.
In workplace-safety terms, the allegations describe what is often called “take-home” exposure — hazardous material spreading beyond a job site on items such as jackets, phones, or car interiors. In this case, the families’ attorneys say lead dust made that trip from the plant into workers’ homes, where children were then exposed…