Keeping customers and communities connected safely.
Telecommunication cables are an essential component of Verizon’s network.
Only a small percentage of our existing network includes lead-sheathed cables, all where we have copper facilities. Our aggressive network transformation strategy over about the past 20 years has focused on upgrading to fiber optic cable. Verizon has not deployed new lead-sheathed infrastructure in decades.
Our company and our industry are taking concerns regarding lead-sheathed cables very seriously. We stand ready to work closely with our industry and others to review concerns and address any issues. To learn more about lead cable sheaths and what the telecommunications industry is doing to minimize lead exposure, please visit www.telecomcablefacts.com.
Verizon is committed to the health and safety of our communities and employees.
Verizon has millions of customers and tens of thousands of employees who work, live and raise families across the United States. We have a vested interest in keeping our communities healthy and safe.
For the small percentage of our workforce that may need to work on lead, we have a robust safety and health program to provide training, materials, and resources needed to do so safely. As updated information about lead has become available through scientific advances over the many decades since lead-sheathed cables were laid, Verizon has continued to update its practices, training information, and safety program. Verizon’s program includes providing employees with personal protective equipment (PPE), training on how to safely work around lead-sheathed cable – everything from how to use PPE, proper hygiene, safe work tools, and controls such as encapsulant, and resources to report all safety-related incidents and concerns to internal compliance teams.
Verizon will continue to follow well established best practices for the safe maintenance of these cables.
Update on status of legacy lead-sheathed cable
There are many sources of lead in the environment today.
Lead in the environment results from a variety of different industrial uses other than telecom – including electric utilities, water pipes, paint, engine fuels and more.
Regulators have been focused on these primary causes of lead in the environment. In fact, federal and state governments have made upgrading lead water supply pipes in the United States a priority through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and other initiatives. For more information about legacy lead-sheathed telecom cable, please visit www.telecomcablefacts.com.