How to Check your Home for Lead Contamination

How to test for lead in the home or other building:

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]. T

he additional text or commentary, website design, links, and references are independent material.

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.

• Lead based paint used indoors and outdoors are introduced
  
  at LEAD BASED PAINT
  and
  
  at LEAD PAINT SURVEYS
  
  Details are
  at LEAD CONTAMINATION HAZARDS in the HOME.
• Lead-containing jewelry, pottery, and toys -
  
  See LEAD TOYS, JEWELRY in this article discusses this source.
  
  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 in WATER, ACTION LEVELS
  
  and
  see LEAD IN DRINKING WATER, HOW to REDUCE
• Airborne lead-containing soil & dust at highways and fields along highways -
  
  see LEAD in AIR, 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 for lead
  
   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.

...

Continue reading  at LEAD TEST KIT for HOME USE or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• LEAD POISONING HAZARDS GUIDE - home
• LEAD in AIR, EMISSIONS STANDARDS
• LEAD BASED PAINT-USES in BUILDINGS
• LEAD in the BODY
• LEAD CONTAMINATION HAZARDS in the HOME
• WHAT TO DO ABOUT LEAD in the HOME
• LEAD CONTAMINATION in WATER, HOW to TEST
• LEAD IN DRINKING WATER, HOW to REDUCE
• LEAD EXPOSURE HAZARDS INDOORS
• LEAD in FLOORING PRODUCTS & POLISHES
• LEAD HAZARDS & FEAR: ENVIRO-SCARE
• LEAD HAZARDS in REMODELING
• LEAD INFORMATION, US GOVERNMENT
• LEAD PIPES in BUILDINGS
• LEAD POISONING EMERGENCY HELP NUMBERS
• LEAD POISONING SYMPTOMS
• LEAD ROOFING & FLASHING
• LEAD TESTS for the FAMILY
• LEAD TESTS for the HOME
• LEAD TEST KIT for HOME USE

Suggested citation for this web page

LEAD TESTS for the HOME at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

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INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to BUILDING ENVIRONMENT

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