Homeowners Beware – Lead-Based Paints Pose Serious Health Concerns
Lead Poisoning
Lead poisoning is without a doubt, a major health concern. By being exposed to lead, it can cause anemia, as well as damage to the human brain and the nervous system. This exposure can seriously impair the learning capabilities of those individuals who come in contact. Children are at an even higher risk.
Even a minimal exposure to the dust that contains lead residues is extremely dangerous to infants, as it is easily absorbed by their young bodies. Unborn children are not spared from the dangers of lead poisoning with the exposure to lead of women who are regnant.
The basic determination of whether lead-based paint was used in your home is based on when it was painted and built. If your home was constructed before 1960, chances are lead-based paints were used on it. For those homes that were constructed after 1980, there may be no issues about the use of lead-based paints for the interior of the house.
The exterior of the house is another story. There are many instances where home exteriors were painted with lead-based paints. In most cases, if your home was constructed after 1992, there is no issue, as all paints manufactured by that time are all lead-free.
The proper removal of lead-based paints is indeed a sensitive task which must be left to professionals. Unless there is major chipping on the paintwork, then removing the paint should be your logical option.
There are two very important ground rules when working on lead-based paints:
• Determine what type of paint was used in your home. It is essential that your home is checked to determine if it was painted with lead-based paint or not. Home renovation specialists use special x-ray equipment that detects the presence of lead on painted surfaces. Another option is to send paint chip samples to a lab to determine if there is lead in the paint or not. The testing is done by certified laboratories.
• You must strictly follow the safety requirements when working on lead-based paints. Do not use blowlamps, heat guns and sanders to remove the lead-based pants. These types of equipment will make the job more difficult and they could produce excessive amounts of fumes and dust that contain lead.
It is your best interest to hire a professional for the job. If you should decide to do the job yourself, it is imperative that you use the appropriate paint stripper.
Paint strippers contain corrosive chemicals. It is absolutely vital that you use them with extreme caution. You must observe the following precautions when using these harmful substances.
• The work area must be off-limits to pregnant women and children.
• Remove all of your furniture and fixtures before beginning the work. Use plastic sheeting to cover and protect those items that cannot be moved.
• Make sure that you isolate the work area from the other parts of the home. Cover all doorways and vents with tape or plastic sheeting to prevent chips, paint particles and scrapings from escaping.
• The work area must be properly ventilated.
• Take a break every 10-15 minutes for fresh air. Stop work right immediately if you feel nauseous or develop headache.
• Protect yourself by wearing goggles, breathing mask, working gloves and protective clothing.
Remember that corrosive chemicals can cause respiratory problems as well as serious burns to the skin.
Take all necessary precautions and be safe.
Lead Poisoning
by: J.E. Seymour
published: 2011-03-19
ASIN: B004SY9GOU
sales rank: 335571
Mob troubleshooter Kevin Markinson thinks New Hampshire is the perfect place to retire with his family. But his family doesn’t want to see him and it’s not that easy to retire from his profession. Then there’s the fact that he is also a fugitive, on the run for a crime he didn’t commit. Things go downhill fast as he struggles to balance his home life and his job with his need to keep moving as the law starts to catch up with him.
Lead-Based Paint Handbook (Topics in Applied Chemistry)
by: Jan W. Gooch
publisher: Springer, published: 1993-07-31
ASIN: 0306444488
EAN: 9780306444487
sales rank: 3107695
price: $104.20 (new), $95.93 (used)
The health hazards of lead-based paint have become a national issue. This first comprehensive handbook addresses all facets of the issue-legal, historical, toxicological-and details identification and abatement techniques, based both on the author’s vast experience as well as other research conducted in the U.S. Well organized and extensively referenced, both engineers and attorneys will profit from access to such a wealth of information.
Lead Based Paint Detection
Did you know that one in four homes could be infested with a lead hazard? Find out how you can detect lead in your home in this clip from Discovery Channel´s ”HowStuffWorks” show.
LEAD POISONING- A PREVENTABLE DISEASE!
One in 22 American children has toxic levels of lead in their systems.
