Lead Paint

One evening, as I lay in bed looking up up at the ceiling in our bedroom and listening to my son breathing, I was thinking about lead paint. My wife, ever the concerned parent, took home a lead paint test kit that they were giving away free at the school where she worked. The test was inconclusive, as once it showed no sign of lead paint, and the next time it did. Both paint chips were taken from the same spot (a window frame in the living room).

I don’t think we have a huge problem since most of the walls were covered with wall paper. Once we removed all the wall paper, the wall board underneath was patched up and painted and then re-coated with latex based paints. All of the windows except the large living room window have been replaced and all of the trim and moldings have been replaced. Much of the dry wall inside the kitchen, living room and second bathroom has also been replaced. Still, it is a concern.

A little history on Lead Paint; for centuries, the primary white pigment in paints was white lead carbonate, (2PbCO₃·Pb(OH)₂), one of the oldest pigments known. Red lead was once popular as a primer. Many countries banned lead in residential paint early in the 20th century. Despite mounting evidence of the effects of its use, lead was still used in paints in US until the danger became too widely known to be ignored. After the 1978 ban, paint manufacturers replaced lead with other ingredients, such as barium sulfate and titanium dioxide.

Although lead improved the performance of paint, lead is extremely toxic to living organisms. It is especially dangerous to children under age six whose bodies are still developing. Lead causes nervous system damage, hearing loss, stunted growth, reduced IQ, and delayed development. It can cause kidney damage. Lead affects every organ system of the body. It also is dangerous to adults, and can cause reproductive problems in adult men. One myth related to lead-based paint is that the most common cause of poisoning was eating leaded paint chips. In fact, the most common pathway of childhood lead exposure is through ingestion of lead dust through normal hand-to-mouth contact during which children swallow lead dust dislodged from deteriorated paint or leaded dust generated during remodeling or painting. Lead dust from remodeling or deteriorated paint lands on the floor near where children play and can ingest it.

What this means for owner’s of older homes is that more likely than not, there are some areas with lead paint in your house. I would be particularly wary of painted plaster walls. Disturbing the painted walls by either cutting them, sanding or removing them will create dust born lead which can be ingested by breathing or by hand to mouth contact.

When working on areas that may have lead paint it is important that a HEPA filter type mask be worn and any area cleanup is done with a HEPA filter equipped vacuum cleaner. When in doubt, better to treat the area as lead contaminated.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) has a good web site about Lead Paint Test Kits Again, better to be safe now then sorry latter.