It was a year ago the young couple purchased what they called ”their dream home,” a 50-year-old Georgian on a quiet street in a western suburb. Happily, they set about fixing up the place, including patching and painting the walls and woodwork.
But a month ago, their 4-year-old daughter and then later their 3-year-old son were hospitalized with acute lead poisoning.
The children, it turned out, had eaten paint chips tainted with lead and were diagnosed as having high levels of lead in their blood. The threat of lead was so severe for the daughter that her physicians recommended she remain out of the home until all the lead-based paint was removed or encapsulated-at a cost of thousands of dollars.
Of all the various potential household environmental hazards, it seems that lead could be a greater concern than asbestos or radon, especially when it comes to home improvers who have children in their homes, say government and medical industry officials.
”If you have little children, you may be more concerned about lead than asbestos or radon,” says G. Michael Brandt of the division of environmental health of the Illinois Department of Public Health. ”It would be the thing to watch the most.”
High lead levels in blood are particularly dangerous to children under age 6.
”Lead poisoning is more of threat to children than adults because children are a growing organism and lead is a toxin to the nervous system,”
says Dr. James A. Raettig, director of the Loyola University Medical Center`s Pediatric Lead Clinic.
Before 1940, interior and exterior lead-based paint was used in about two-thirds of all homes. The use of lead-based paint dropped significantly after 1960 and by the late 1970s the federal government drastically restricted the amount of lead used in paint.
Hence, if your home was built before 1977, there`s a good chance it contains a lead-based paint. And the older the home, the higher the probability.
Even if you have painted your home`s interior several times in the last few years with unleaded paint, lead dust still makes it way to the surface, says Brandt.
”Paint is very porous,” he says. ”And dust becomes airborne by house vibrations, the movement of windows and doors, and by people walking through the room.”
While the official recommendation from government and medical officials is to call in a contractor to remove lead, many homeowners can`t afford that. What follows are several precautions homeowners can take with home improvement projects.
Checking for lead
Before starting a home improvement project, you should have both your family and home tested for lead, ”because for some miraculous reason, the house might not have any lead in it,” says Brandt.
The first step is to have a physician test your children`s blood for lead. (This will be mandatory for Illinois school enrollment as of Jan. 1, 1993.) ”If lead shows up, have the house tested,” recommends Brandt. ”There are a few fairly simple testing procedures that are not very expensive.”
One product available for these tests is LeadCheck Swabs, which sell for about $11 for a four-swab pack at most home improvement stores. When rubbed on a wall or woodwork, these chemical swabs change color if lead is detected. The tests take a couple of minutes to conduct. (If LeadCheck Swabs aren`t available at your local store, you can call 1-800-262-LEAD to find the closest retail store where you can buy this product.)
If lead is evident in both your children`s body and your home, ”you need to make an environmental evaluation for your home,” says Brandt.
For example, you should consult with a physician to see how dangerous the lead levels are. You may also want to consider hiring a contractor to remove or encapsulate the lead paint.
Another simple step you can take is good housekeeping and good hygiene, says Brandt. ”Keep the dust off of walls and woodwork by washing the surfaces clean with a high or trisodium phosphate detergent or household cleaner,”
Brandt advises. ”Use lint-free towels with any cleanup. And immediately clean up any paint chips you might find.”
Keeping your children`s hands clean will also help minimize the amount of lead they will ingest, says Brandt.
Rehab projects
If tests determine traces of lead in walls or woodwork and if you`re planning to conduct a home improvement project that will involve those walls or woodwork-such as patching holes or replacing windows-Brandt advises removing family members from the house until the job is completed.
”If people are going to be there, totally seal the room off, including the ductwork,” he says. ”Cover openings with a plastic sheet 6 mils thick and seal the plastic with duct tape. You want to make sure no dust gets out of that room.”
For your own protection, Brandt recommends wearing a face mask with a HEPA (high efficiency particulate arresting) organic filter. ”You will find them at a safety supply store rather than a hardware store,” he says.
If you can, ventilate that room through an outside window. ”But remember that the dust is coming out of your house and onto the ground,” he says. ”So if the kids are playing underneath the window, that`s not a good idea.”
Try to minimize any sanding or scraping, and use water when you do it, says Brandt. ”And when you vacuum, mist down any debris with water and use a wet/dry shop vacuum to pick it up. And put a little bit of water in the bottom of the wet vacuum so that the debris that goes in there will stick.”
Finally, remove the clothes you used in the job before moving through the house and wash them separately, Brandt says.
Woodwork restoration
If you`re planning to restore woodwork that has been painted, Brandt says, the following scenario will minimize the spread of lead dust.
Again, he recommends having other family members leave the home while the work is underway.
Because stripping wood literally raises a lot of problems with dust, Brandt advises removing pieces of woodwork and restoring them off-site, perhaps in a garage, basement or back yard. You could also send out the wood to be professionally stripped.
Again, seal off the room to prevent the spread of dust. Mist the woodwork with water to keep the dust down and, after removal, encase it in a plastic bag before carrying it through the house.
Also, change your clothes before walking through the rest of the home.
At the off-site location, Brandt recommends using a chemical stripper or heat gun of less than 700 degrees to strip the wood.
Use a dropcloth or sheet of plastic to collect any scrapings or chips and dispose of them in the trash.
After the wood is stripped, wash it down in with a high phosphate cleaner and vacuum it when dry. Then seal it with the finish you were planning to use. If you can`t remove the woodwork from the walls, Brandt advises using a chemical stripper on-site and following the above cleanup steps.
Encapsulation
One way of minimizing the problem of lead is to encapsulate walls by placing new sheets of drywall or paneling over the old walls.
Paint manufacturers are also beginning to market liquid encapsulants that can provide a dust-free barrier to the leaded dust, says Brandt.
”The encapsulants are a lot more costly than paint but you save money by not having to remove or recover your wall,” he says. Currently, the EPA is examining several brands of encapsulants, he adds.
Removing old walls is generally not recommended, says Brandt, because of the amount of dust that will be stirred up. Painted woodwork, such as doors and trim, can also be replaced with new wood but at a very high cost.
Exterior work
Many exterior wood surfaces can also contain lead paint and should also be treated with care.
”If you plan on rehabbing the exterior of your home, and don`t have small children, you could contaminate the neighboring property where small children reside,” says Connie Sullinger, a toxicologist with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. ”So, if you`re removing lead paint in any way from the exterior of a home, there needs to be some sort of containment.” For more information
The Department of Public Health has numerous brochures on lead in the home. Home improvers can call 217-782-5830 or write to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health, 525 W. Jefferson, Third Floor, Springfield, Ill. 62761.
Information about lead can also be obtained from the Chicago Department of Health`s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Hotline by calling 312-747-LEAD. Available is information on lead screenings for children, as well as lists of contractors trained to remove and encapsulate lead paint.
