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How Should a Home be Checked for Lead Contamination Hazards? InspectAPedia®  -     How Should a Home be Checked for Lead Contamination Hazards? What should be checked besides lead paint ?

This article suggests where and how a home or other building should be tested for lead contamination hazards. To reduce the risk of lead poisoning attention is needed to more than just paint.

By offering simple steps to protect your family from lead poisoning, the original US CPSC document provided advice for reducing the risk of lead poisoning for families living in homes where lead exposure is suspected, likely, or where lead contamination is actually confirmed by testing. However that particular document omitted attention to lead contamination sources in buildings other than paint.

The original U.S. CPSC document is public domain. We have made additions to the technical depth of this article and we have added additional important detail about lead hazards - these are indicated by a [bracketed note in italics]. The additional text or commentary, website design, links, and references are

© Copyright 2012 InspectAPedia.com, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use page top links to major topics or use links at the left of each page to navigate within topics and documents at this website. Green links show where you are in a document series or at this website.

How Should a Home or other Building be Checked for Lead Contamination Hazards?

While the original CPSC article focused on lead paint hazards (indeed a major source of lead contamination in some buildings), below we list additional potential sources of lead that should be considered. There is no doubt that no lead hazard list is exhaustive or therefore complete. Contact Us by email to suggest additions or corrections.

• Lead based paint used indoors and outdoors are introduced at   Lead Based Paint and  Lead Paint Surveys Details are at LEAD CONTAMINATION HAZARDS in the HOME.
• Lead-containing jewelry, pottery, and toys -   Lead Toys, Jewelry in this article discusses this source. See LEAD CONTAMINATION HAZARDS in the HOME for additional advice. See LEAD TEST KIT for HOME USE for a simple test for lead on building surfaces, pottery, and toys.
• Lead in drinking water from lead plumbing or from the water supply itself. Lead in water is introduced at Lead Plumbing Lead in Water. For details on how to test for and remove lead from drinking water, including advice about test procedures to avoid missing or over-stating a lead in water problem, see LEAD CONTAMINATION in WATER, HOW to TEST.
  Also see LEAD WATER PIPING HAZARDS & REMEDIES and LEAD IN DRINKING WATER, HOW to REDUCE
• Airborne lead-containing soil & dust at highways and fields along highways - see Lead in Air - U.S. Lead Emissions Standards as well as lead-containing soils around buildings due to stripping of lead paint.

Suggestions for Checking a Building for Lead Based Paint

Just knowing that a home has lead-based paint may not tell you if there is a hazard.

You can get your home checked for lead hazards in one of two ways, or both:

• A paint inspection tells you the lead content of every painted surface in your home. It won't tell you whether the paint is a hazard or how you should deal with it.
• A lead paint risk assessment tells you if there are any sources of serious lead exposure (such as peeling paint and lead dust). It also tells you what actions to take to address these hazards.

Have qualified professionals do the work. The federal government is writing standards for inspectors and risk assessors. Some states might already have standards in place. Call your state agency for help with locating qualified professionals in your area (see below).

Trained professionals use a range of methods when checking your home, including:

• Visual inspection of paint condition and location.
• Lab tests of paint samples.
• Surface dust tests.
• A portable x-ray fluorescence machine.

Watch out: Home test kits for lead are available, but the federal government is still testing their reliability. These tests should not be the only method used before doing renovations or to assure safety.

Watch out for environmental testing and cleanup that are not performed by qualified experts. Details & examples of what can go wrong are at ASBESTOS REMOVAL, Amateur, Incomplete and Asbestos Removal, Certification.

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• Additional technical contributors & reference sources for this article are listed below.

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ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS - INSPECT, TEST, REMEDY

ASBESTOS IDENTIFICATION IN buildings
LEAD POISONING HAZARDS GUIDE
  Lead levels in blood
  How lead enters the body
  Sources of Lead
  Lead Based Paint
  Lead Paint Surveys
  Lead Plumbing Lead in Water
  Lead Toys, Jewelry
  Report on the National Survey of Lead-Based Paint
  Lead in Air - U.S. Lead Emissions Standards
LEAD CONTAMINATION HAZARDS in the HOME
  Protect Your Family from Lead
  Lead in Homes Before 1978
  Lead Hazard Warnings
  Lead in the Body
  Lead's Effects on People
  Extreme Lead Poisoning Symptoms, Effects
  Testing Your Family for Lead
  Lead-Based Paint Uses in buildings
  Lead paint hazard spots in buildings
  Checking Your Home for Lead
  What You Can Do about Lead in the Home
  Remodeling & Lead Hazards
  Other Lead Sources
  Help Numbers for Lead Poisoning
  Government Contacts for Lead Info
LEAD CONTAMINATION in WATER, HOW to TEST
  Lead Contamination from Water Lines
  Lead in Water, Health Risks
  Lead Contamination Limits in Drinking Water
  Lead Test Results Affected by Test Methods
LEAD EXPOSURE HAZARDS INDOORS
LEAD HAZARDS & FEAR: Enviro-Scare
LEAD IN DRINKING WATER, HOW to REDUCE
  Lead in Drinking Water
  Health Effects of Lead
  Lead in Drinking Water
  Steps You Can Take
  Tests for Lead Contamination in Water
LEAD PAINT REMOVAL ALTERNATIVES
LEAD PAINT REMOVAL TROUBLES
LEAD PIPES in BUILDINGS
LEAD in ROOFING, EFFECTS
LEAD TEST KIT for HOME USE

LEAD WATER PIPING HAZARDS & REMEDIES
  Allowable Lead Levels in Water
  Lead Level vs. Test Methods

Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair

• Our recommended books about building & mechanical systems design, inspection, problem diagnosis, and repair, and about indoor environment and IAQ testing, diagnosis, and cleanup are at the InspectAPedia Bookstore. Also see our Book Reviews - InspectAPedia.
• US CPSC Document #426 "How to Protect Your Family from Lead in the Home" with additional information and annotations
• "Standard Operating Procedure for Determining Lead (Pb) and Its Availability in Children's Metal Jewelery", US CPSC, 2/3/2005
• Lead in Drinking Water: Advice
• Tests for Lead Contamination in Water
• Lead in Drinking Water - Testing Problems/Advice
• Lead Hazards: Advice, evaluation, mitigation, services - lead paint, lead in plumbing, lead in water, air, dust
• How to Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home U.S. CPSC publication with additional links and resource references
• Lead Hazards in buildings, Dust, Paint, Water: General Advice, Testing Procedures, Illnesses with additional links and resource references for Lead Hazards
• Lead in Drinking Water : Advice
• Lead Testing & Correcting Contamination from Lead Water Supply Lines/Entry Mains - Lead Pipe Problems/Advice
• "Dally No Longer, Get the Lead Out," Jane Brody, The New York Times," 17 January 2006 p. F6. This is a good article for summarizing the lead issue.
• SOP for Determining Lead (Pb) and And Its Availability in Children's Jewelry
• Toy Industry Policy on Lead in Toys, International Council of Toy Industries, October 8, 1997

  "The voluntary standard established in the United States under ASTM F-963 and the European standard under EN-71 for soluble lead in toys (lead which may migrate from the toy and be ingested by the child) is 90 parts-per-million. At that level, any intentional use of lead in paints or other surface coatings containing lead would immediately put the toy over the permitted limit."

  "Under federal law, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) enforces a standard for total lead of 600 ppm. Recently, the CPSC refused to lower the lead limit in paint and other similar surface coating materials to 100 ppm after finding that most paints sold in the United States were already at or below that level and, therefore, these materials did not present an unreasonable risk of injury warranting further government regulation."

• Extreme Lead Poisoning Symptoms Suggested by Feb 2006 NY Times Article on Kosovo Roma Camps
• Environmental Hazard Testing, Effects, Remedies, Prevention - our main Enviro-Haz web page
• Drinking Water Contamination and Pollution How to Detect, Test, Correct, and Prevent Well Water Contamination - US EPA - Groundwater
• ...