Lead Is Still Around!!!
Contents of this Article
Testing Your Home for Lead
Have your home tested for lead hazards, especially if your home has paint in poor condition and the house was built before 1978. If you have any lead hazards, get them fixed. Hire a trained and certified testing professional contractor, who is required to follow certain health safety requirements for remediation or renovation involving lead-based paint.
To test your home for lead, have either a risk assessment or a lead inspection done.
- Risk Assessment - A risk assessor tells you if your home contains sources of lead exposure, such as peeling paint or lead dust. The risk assessor will give you a report that identifies lead hazards and ways to reduce or control them. If you suspect you have a lead problem , a risk assessment is usually the most appropriate way to test for lead hazards. A risk assessor may suggest that you clean or dust more often, repair deteriorated lead-painted surfaces, or plant grass in areas with bare soil. The assessor may also suggest that you replace old windows, re-cover old floors, or remove soil. The risk assessor's report will show you what methods you can use to control hazards. It will also list an estimated cost of other actions you may take to prevent or control hazards.
- Lead Inspection - A lead inspector reveals the lead content of every painted surface in your home. An inspection will not tell you whether the paint is a hazard or how you should deal with it. The purpose of the inspection is to test each type of painted surface in your home and answer two questions:
1) Is lead-based paint present?
2) If lead-based paint is present, where is it located?
It is important to know where lead-based paint is in your home so that, if disturbed by you or your contractor, additional lead hazards aren't created. An inspection is usually recommended if you plan to remodel, renovate, or disturb paint. An inspection is also advised if you plan to abate (eliminate) the lead-based paint in your home.
Whether you hire an inspector or a risk assessor to do your testing, check his or her background. Those who have worked with public housing authorities and childhood lead poisoning prevention programs are usually well qualified. If you decide to hire a professional firm to control lead hazards, you may want to hire someone other than the person who did the testing.
Call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD (5323) for a list of contacts in your area.
NOTE: Consumers should not rely on home lead test kits, they may not always be accurate. Home test kits use chemicals to detect lead in paint, soil, and dust. Some kits can test water, dishes, glasses, and ceramics. A reaction occurs when the chemicals in the kit are exposed to lead. The Federal Government does not currently recommend home test kits to detect lead in paint, dust or soil. Studies show the kits are not reliable enough to tell the difference between high and low levels of lead. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can tell you how to best test for lead in dishes, cups, glasses, and other items. Contact the FDA at 1-800-FDA-4010 for information on testing these items.
Trained professionals use a range of methods when checking your home, including:
- Visual inspection of paint condition and location.
- A portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) machine.
- Lab tests of paint, dust, and soil samples.
You can temporarily reduce lead hazards by taking actions such as repairing damaged painted surfaces and planting grass to cover soil with high lead levels. These actions are not permanent solutions and will need ongoing attention. To permanently remove lead hazards, you must hire a certified lead "abatement" contractor. Abatement (or permanent hazard elimination) methods include removing, sealing, or enclosing lead-based paint with special materials. Just painting over the hazard with regular paint is not enough.
Take precautions to avoid exposure to lead dust when remodeling or renovating (call 1-800-424-LEAD (5323) for guidelines).
Don't use a belt-sander, propane torch, high temperature heat gun, scraper, or sandpaper on painted surfaces that may contain lead.
Do not try to remove lead-based paint yourself.
Temporarily move your family (especially children and pregnant women) out of the apartment or house until the work is done and the area is properly cleaned. If you can't move your family, at least completely seal off the work area.
Call 1-800-424-LEAD (5323) and ask for the brochure "Reducing Lead Hazards When Remodeling Your Home," a brochure explaining what to do before, during, and after renovations.
Beginning in April 2010, federal law will require that contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination. Until that time, EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) recommends that anyone performing renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in pre-1978 homes, child care facilities and schools follow lead-safe work practices. The contractor should follow these three simple procedures:
- Contain the work area
- Minimize dust
- Clean up throughly
WARNING:
Improper housing renovation increases exposure. The riskiest practices are sanding, scraping or removing lead paint with a heat gun, which taint the air with lead paint dust. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warns: There is no completely safe method for do-it-yourself removal of lead paint. Only experts should remove lead paint.
If you think your home has high levels of lead, call the numbers below to help you prevent lead poisoning and eliminate the problem forever.
For More Information
There are state and federal programs in place to ensure that testing for lead is done safely, reliably, and effectively. Contact your state or local agency, or for more information on lead poisoning, or for other information on lead hazards call:
National Lead Information Center to speak with a lead information specialist.
1-800-424-LEAD (5323).
EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline for information on lead hazards in your drinking water.
1-800-426-4791
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Hotline for information on lead in consumer products, or to report an unsafe consumer product or a product-related injury.
1-800-638-2772
For information on lead regulations, outreach efforts, and lead hazard control and research grant programs contact:
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control
451 Seventh Street, SW, P-3206
Washington, DC 20410
202-755-1785
Hearing Impaired call the Federal Information Relay Service
1-800-877-8339.
The information provided in this summary is based upon scientific and technical understanding of the issues presented and is reflective of the jurisdictional boundaries established by the statutes governing the co-authoring agencies. Following the advice given will not necessarily provide complete protection in all situations or against all health hazards that can be caused by lead exposure.
U.S. EPA Washington DC 20460
U.S. CPSC Washington DC 20207
U.S. HUD Washington DC 20410
EPA747-K99-001
June 2003
References:
1) ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) - Department of Health and Human Services - January 2008 - www.atsdr.cdc.gov
2) EPA - United States Environmental Protection Agency - June 2003 - www.epa.gov
3) United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - FDA Consumer - January - February 1998 - www.cfsan.fda.gov
4) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) - National Institutes of Health - Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) - Jan 2008 - www.niehs.nih.gov
This summary is a general overview about the topic discussed and does not include all the facts, or include everything there is to know about any medicine and/or products mentioned. Do not use any medicine and/or products without first talking to your doctor. Possible side effects of medications, other than those listed, may occur. Full Disclaimer & General Safety Advisory