If you live in a house built before 1978, the year lead-based paints were outlawed, you probably have lead in your home. And if you live in a pre-1950 home, you certainly have lead in your home, because lead-based paints were the only paints used in that era.
Whether a home contains lead is a growing concern, not only for pregnant women and children 6 and under-who face the greatest health risks from lead-but for all homeowners.
That’s because under the federal government’s Residential Lead-based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, otherwise known as Title X, sellers of homes built before 1978 are going to be required to disclose whether they are aware of lead in the home. The disclosure portion of that law goes into effect October 1995. As of that date, a home seller will have three choices in answering the question of whether they are aware of lead in their home: “Yes,” “No,” or “I don’t know.”
If they answer yes, the seller will be required to provide the buyer with test documentation detailing how much lead is in the home and where it is located.
If the answer is no, sellers will have to show documentation proving that the home has been tested and that no serious lead problem exists.
And if the seller isn’t sure about the presence of lead, the inconclusive answer will trigger a more complex mechanism.
“Prospective buyers will be given a 10-day timeframe to have their own testing done by state-licensed lead inspectors,” says Joe Kilpatrick, president of the Wauconda-based Great Lakes Regional Chapter of the non-profit National Lead Abatement Council (NLAC).
“If the tests turn up positive for lead, the prospective buyers will be free to walk away from the deal.”
Title X was passed by Congress in response to mounting evidence that lead contamination through ingestion or inhalation poses a serious health problem for children 6 and under.
What lead does
According to John Dimos, a certified industrial hygienist and trainer for the Midwestern Environmental and Industrial Health Training Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the human body absorbs lead in much the same way that it does iron and calcium.
“Your body can’t tell them apart,” he explains. “Once lead is inhaled or ingested by a young child, it can interfere with the body’s natural ability to form red blood cells, and also interferes with the synthesis of hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen.”
The major health effect is upon the central nervous system, where lead can contribute to memory problems and lower IQ levels.
Fetuses are also at risk. Dimos says pregnant women with more than 30 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood risk delivering children with minor congenital abnormalities, lower birth weight and decreased mental abilities.
Not only are young children more seriously affected by lead than are older children and adults, but they are also far more likely to accidentally ingest or inhale lead.
Children can be exposed to lead by nibbling on paint chips, by breathing lead dust, or by transferring into their mouths the lead dust picked up on their fingers from toys, walls, carpets or floors.
While chipping paint is most often associated with the problem, it is lead dust that presents the chief culprit for homeowners with young children, Kilpatrick says. “It can be generated by friction edges on doors, windows, and door frames, can result from deteriorating paint on exterior and interior walls, and can be brought into homes on the bottoms of shoes,” he says.
The danger from lead dust increases as homes age and deteriorate. “This wasn’t such a problem years ago,” he says. “because the lead paint was newer then.”
Another contributor to lead dust is home rehab projects, says Tom Corbett, president of Tomacor Inc. Property Inspection in Chicago, and one of the first state-certified lead inspectors in Illinois.
“The problem has been somewhat associated with young urban professionals,” he says. “They are often the people buying older homes in the city and rehabbing them. And they are doing that at the same time they are having young children.”
After the disclosure provision of Title X goes into effect in October 1995, buyers will be more likely to know about the lead content of the homes they’re hoping to purchase. But before then there are ways to check for telltale signs that lead is likely to be a problem, Kilpatrick says.
An informal check
One way is to take careful note of the paint both inside and outside the home. “Check the viability of the paint,” he says. “Is there evidence of dust or paint chips around?
“Also, run your hand down a wall. If there’s a chalky substance that appears on your fingertips, that could indicate a problem.”
“Another potential hazard exists if there are a lot of dirt areas around the house. These kinds of areas are associated with greater concentrations of lead because auto emissions, lead dust and lead chips tend to accumulate in soil.”
In general, he says, a buyer should look for good housekeeping practices and a minimum amount of dust inside the house.
For homeowners, there are several tests that can be administered to determine if lead is a problem, Kilpatrick and Corbett say.
The most sophisticated is an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) test, which utilizes a machine incorporating a radioactive material. When held up to a wall, the machine gives a quantitative reading of the volume of lead the wall contains. “But it’s too sophisticated and too expensive to be used by the general public,” Corbett says.
The XRF test must be administered by a licensed lead inspector. Homeowners can get a list of licensed lead inspectors from by state by calling contacting the Illinois Department of Public Health at 800-545-2200.
Less complex tests, which provide only an indication of whether lead is above acceptable levels determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are available to homeowners. An example is Lead Check, a kit sold in some hardware and paint stores.
“With Lead Check, you make a slit in the painted surface of a wall to get through the outer layers of paint,” Kilpatrick says. “The kit includes a cotton swab containing chemicals. If the swab turns from white to pink or red when it’s rubbed over the slit, you’re over acceptable levels.”
Kilpatrick adds that if the test does turn up a positive reading, a licensed lead inspector should be called in to give a quantitative reading of the lead problem.
A lower risk
If young children and pregnant women are not residents of the home, the risk is lessened considerably and the homeowner has several options.
One is management of the problem, which involves simply good housekeeping and possibly repainting surfaces that contain lead.
A more aggressive option is phased remediation, in which lead is removed, enclosed, or encapsulated over time. These steps need not be cost-prohibitive, and can add to the value of the home, Kilpatrick says.
One possible step is enclosure, in which half-inch drywall is installed over surfaces containing lead inside the home. Another is the use of aluminum or vinyl siding over lead-based painted surfaces on the home’s exterior. A third is the application of a layer of lead encapsulant, which is necessary because lead-based paint can slough through even three or four layers of latex paint, Kilpatrick says.
Because lead dust can be stirred up in undertaking these projects, Kilpatrick suggests that homeowners not do the jobs themselves, but instead hire a lead abatement specialist, who has training in sealing off the area to minimize the spread of dust.
Michael Brandt, chief of the lead and asbestos abatement section with the Illinois Department of Public Health in Springfield, says those who want to do it themselves shouldn’t rush into the project.
“People can get in trouble by doing lead abatement themselves,” he warns. “Before they do anything, they should call our office for information and brochures.” The agency’s hotline is 1-800-545-2200.
In some cases, it may be cheaper to replace a window with a modern energy-efficient window, rather than stripping and repainting the frame. Says Kilpatrick: “Component removal has benefits. When the question is asked whether there’s lead in the home, the owner can say, `No, we replaced the trim and the windows and we’re clean.’ “
Also note whether there may be lead in your drinking water. “Follow the cold water pipe from your water heater to the place where it enters the home,” Corbett says. “Go to that first inch of pipe, take a dime, and scratch the pipe. If it’s easily scratched and turns a bright silver, you probably have lead water service.”
For homeowners that have lead water service, Corbett recommends running water for three minutes before drinking it or cooking with it.
Additionally, women should drink bottled water before and during pregnancy if they fear there is a lead problem in the drinking water, says Salvatore Cali, associate director of UIC’s Midwestern Environmental and Industrial Training Center.
Kilpatrick says homeowners with lead service pipes should contact their water department. Some water departments can flush pipes with a coating chemical that prevents lead from leaching into the water.
Those familiar with the problem expect many homeowners to put off the lead issue until they are ready to sell. But that’s not wise, says Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C.
“Don’t wait for a real estate transaction to look for lead,” he says. “Check these things out before you put a home on the market, and correct them. In a competitive market, the home that has had that correction will be the one that sells more quickly-because it’s one less thing for the buyer to worry about.”
They got the lead out
In 1991, Cynthia Lowrie, her husband, Ed, and their 1-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, lived in a big, turn-of-the century Wheaton home.
After a friend showed Lowrie a newsmagazine story on high lead levels in children living in older homes, Lowrie had Elizabeth tested. The girl was found to have an elevated blood lead level.
“She had about 15 micrograms per deciliter,” recalls Lowrie. “Ten micrograms is the approximate level where effects have been shown to be noticeable in a population of children.”
About the same time, the Lowries were planning a remodeling job on their bathroom. The house was tested for lead and found to be above acceptable levels.
The Lowries attended a lead abatement seminar in Detroit, where they learned about lead removal. Subsequently, they spent about $30,000 replacing windows, installing vinyl siding, having radiators removed, sandblasted and repainted, installing drywall over plaster ceilings, and recarpeting, among other steps.
“We left other areas alone if they were covered with wallpaper or weren’t friction surfaces,” says Lowrie.
“The $30,000 was necessary to make the home lead-safe, but it was also a good investment that added to the value of the home.”
After they completed the work, the house was tested again and was “found to be clean,” says Lowrie. Elizabeth’s blood lead level decreased to 11, but shot back up to 15 as soon as she grew old enough to play outside.
“We found there is often a lead problem outside (from the deterioration of lead-based exterior paints) in older neighborhoods,” she says. “So we moved.”
Today, the Lowries live in a newer home, and Elizabeth’s blood lead level is now at an acceptable range.
Her experience motivated Lowrie to found the Lead Education and Awareness Project in Wheaton. Sponsored by the Wheaton Jaycees, the organization provides information to homeowners interested in doing lead abatement in their homes.
Lowrie, who heads the project, can be reached at 708-260-9550.
She has advice for all parents who live in older homes and have very young children. “Screen your child every six months if you live in a home built before 1950,” she says. “And have a lead test done before you remove paint or do any kind of renovation.”
Next month: Radon.
