Where mighht lead paint be found in buildings? This article outlines where lead paint was commonly found on building interiors and on building exteriors.

These visual clues help warn off building owners or contractors who are about to renovate an older building, or who want to know which surfaces are most at risk and most need to be examined or tested for lead. Actual testing to confirm the presence or absence of lead paint is recommended for older homes.

Our page top photo of an older wood-sided building with peeling paint also shows how soil around a building may have been lead-contaminated even if the lead-based paint coated siding has since been replaced, re-painted, or covered with a newer material.

This website provides 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.

When and Where is Lead Based Paint Found in buildings?

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 independent material.

In general, the older your home, the more likely it has lead-based paint.

Our photo shows a building originally constructed in 1759, inspected by the author. This home has undergone generations of paint application, coat on top of paint coat.

Our OPINION was and is that there is no reason to test this building for the presence of lead paint because when we see thick multiple layers of paint on an older building like this it's a reasonable assumption that lead based paints are bound to be present on most painted surfaces in this case.

Many homes built before 1978 have lead-based paint.

In the U.S. 1978, the federal government banned lead-based paint from housing. Lead can be found:

• In homes in the city, country, or suburbs.
• In apartments, single-family homes, and both private and public housing.
• Inside and outside of the house.
• In soil around a home. (Soil can pick up lead from exterior paint, or other sources such as past use of leaded gas in cars.)

OPINION-DF: We have a special concern for both the hazards to house painters who often do not take precautions to protect themselves, and for homes that are re-painted without following good housekeeping and lead dust or lead paint chip control.

We recommend insisting that your painter wear appropriate protection while working on your home and that drop cloths be used to collect sanding and paint chips containing lead dust when the home is being prepared for re-painting. If this debris is left on the soil it may form a soil-lead contamination hazard to children later playing in the area close to the building.

Notes to the table above

• Barboza, David, "Cheap lead pint common on Chinese goods", The New York Times, 10 September 2007, retrieved 2022/03/07 original source: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/business/worldbusiness/10iht-lead.5.7455679.html
• Kessler, Rebecca. LEAD-BASED DECORATIVE PAINTS: WHERE ARE THEY STILL SOLD—AND WHY? [PDF] (2014): A96-A103.
  Excerpt:
  Where Are Lead-Based Decorative Paints Still Sold? 1 Argentina 2 Armenia 3 Azerbaijan 4 Bangladesh 5 Belarus 6 Brazil 7 Cameroon 8 Chile 9 China 10 Côte d’Ivoire 11 Ecuador 12 Egypt 13 Ethiopia 14 Ghana 15 India 16 Indonesia 17 Kazakhstan 18 Kenya 19 Kyrgyzstan 20 Lebanon 21 Malaysia 22 Mexico 23 Nepal 24 Nigeria 25 Paraguay 26 Peru 27 Philippines 28 Russia 29 Senegal 30 Seychelles 31 Singapore 32 South Africa 33 Sri Lanka 34 Taiwan 35 Tanzania 36 Thailand 37 Tunisia 38 Uganda33 39 United Arab Emirates34 40 Vietnam35
• Lead paint was banned in 1978 in the United States after studies showed it could cause neurological problems and even death in children. Health Canada says long term exposure could cause anemia and damage the brain and nervous system. - CBC Canada, "Paint Companies Sued for Lead Poisoning", 4 September 2002
• Murao, Satoshi & Kyoko Ono, CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE OF LEAD-BASED PAINTS AND PIGMENTS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC -INTERIM REPORT [PDF] (2012)
  
  This research is based on a contract between the United Nations Environmental Programme Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP-ROAP) and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). It is to review the state of the art of existing national legal, regulatory, institutional and technical frameworks that relate to the global objective of eliminating lead paint by liaising with Asian and the Pacific countries.
  
  This analysis takes into account the overarching international commitment, lead by the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead in Paint (GAELP), to “[…] ensure that by 2020 all chemicals are used and produced in ways that minimize adverse effects on human health and the environment,” (GAELP2 draft report, para. 11). The report also touches on the existence of lead in children’s toys, which is one main objective of GAELP.
  
  The United Nations’ Resolution II/4 of the International Conference on Chemicals Management recognises the need for attention to be given to issues relating to the sound management of chemicals and in that context resolution II/4/B focuses attention on “lead in paint” as an emerging policy issue.
• UN, UPDATE on the GLOBAL STATUS of LEGAL LIMITS on LEAD in PAINT [PDF] (September 2019)United Nations Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint
  Excerpt:
  As of 30 September 2019, 73 countries have legally binding controls to limit the production, import and sale of lead paints, which is 38% of all countries. In many countries, using lead paint in homes and schools is not prohibited, creating a significant risk of children’s exposure to lead.
  
  The most effective means of preventing lead exposure from paints is to establish national laws, including legislation, regulations and/or legally binding standards as appropriate, that ban the use of lead additives in paints.
  
  Countries that have not yet done so are urged to enact and enforce effective national legislation, regulations and/or standards to, at a minimum, stop the stop the manufacture, import and sale of household decorative lead paints. Countries are also encouraged to consider limiting lead in all types of paints.
• [17] Appropriate Methods for Reducing Lead-Paint Hazards in Historic Housing, Sharon C. Park, AIA, and Douglas C. Hicks, U.S. National Park Service.
• [18] "Report on the National Survey of Lead-Based Paint in Housing [PDF] - Executive Summary - U.S. EPA, April, 1995 (EPA 747-R-95-003). An Executive Summary of this report is provided in this web page below. The Full report is at this (large) pdf file.
• [19] Using X-ray fluorescence for analysis of lead in paint and applicability of other agencies lead levels [Website] OSHA, 03/01/1999 - this is an important document because OSHA does not accept XRF for analysis of lead exposure in the workplace.

  The lead-in-construction standard was intended to apply to any detectable concentration of lead in paint, as even small concentrations of lead can result in unacceptable employee exposures depending upon on the method of removal and other workplace conditions.
  
  Since these conditions can vary greatly, the lead-in-construction standard was written to require exposure monitoring or the use of historical or objective data to ensure that employee exposures do not exceed the action level. Historical data may be applied to all construction tasks involving lead. Objective data was intended to apply to all tasks other than those listed under paragraph (d)(2) of the standard.

  ["OSHA does not consider X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to be an acceptable method of analysis.
  
  As stated in your letter, XRF analyzers are generally considered accurate when concentrations of lead in paint exceed 1 mg/cm2.

  For the purposes of occupational health, these levels are considered substantial and may easily present an exposure hazard.

  Without having conducted monitoring, or without the benefit of historical or objective data, the employer has no assurance of the employee's exposure. "

  "Other regulatory agencies, such as Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) have designated levels of lead in paint below which they consider the paint to be non-lead containing.
  
  The missions of these agencies differ from OSHA's, and for that reason, OSHA cannot recognize these levels as safe under workplace situations.

  We recommend reviewing this position letter from OSHA. -- DF

• [20] How to Identify Lead Paint Hazards, Maryland Department of the Environment, outlines when a lead inspection is necessary, who can perform a lead inspection, and the types of analysis used for lead inspections and testing. Maryland DOE includes suggestions for do-it-yourself lead paint testing using paint chips or scrapings. If you follow this approach be sure your samples accurately represent conditions at the whole building, inside and out -- DF.

Watch out: regardless of when the use of lead paint was banned in your country, it is possible that surfaces painted after that date may nonetheless have been coated with lead-based paint.

That's because homeowners and on occasion painting contractors may have made use of older, stored lead paint still on hand. - Thanks to reader Max for making this point at ASBESTOS CEILING TILE FAQs in March 2022.

Where is Lead Paint Most Likely to be a Hazard in Buildings?

Lead from paint chips, which you can see, and lead dust, which you can't always see, can both be serious hazards.

Lead-based paint that is in good condition is usually not a hazard. [DF-note: see comments at my other lead articles cited below, about lead painted window sash dust and toddler lead ingestion]

Peeling, chipping, chalking, or cracking lead-based paint is a hazard and needs immediate attention.

Lead-based paint may also be a hazard when found on surfaces that children can chew or that get a lot of wear-and-tear.

These areas include:

• Windows and window sills, particularly sliding double-hung or single hung window sashes that move a painted window frame up and down in a track.
• Doors, door jambs and door frames.
• Stairs, railings, and banisters that have been painted.
• Porches and fences that are painted, and painted gates and gate handles
• OPINION-DF: soils around older buildings that were probably painted with lead-based paint even if the siding was subsequently stripped, replaced, or sided-over. .

Lead dust can form when lead-based paint is dry scraped, dry sanded, or heated.

Dust also forms when painted surfaces bump or rub together. Lead chips and dust can get on surfaces and objects that people touch. Settled lead dust can reenter the air when people vacuum, sweep, or walk through it.

Lead in soil can be a hazard when children play in bare soil or when people bring soil into the house on their shoes. Call your state agency (see below) to find out about soil testing for lead.

...

Continue reading  at LEAD HAZARDS in REMODELING or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

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• CEILING PAINT TEXTURED / POPCORN ASBESTOS
• LEAD ENVIRO-SCARE - rational and irrational consumer fears around environmental topics and the impact of environmental contaminants
• LEAD HAZARDS in REMODELING
• LEAD POISONING HAZARDS GUIDE - home

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