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Information about Lead Based
Paint
Lead-based paint is hazardous to
your health.
Lead-based paint is a major source
of lead poisoning for children and can also affect adults. In
children, lead poisoning can cause irreversible brain damage and
can impair mental functioning. It can retard mental and
physical development and reduce attention span. It can also
retard fetal development even at extremely low levels of
lead. In adults, it can cause irritability, poor muscle
coordination, and nerve damage to the sense organs and nerves
controlling the body. Lead poisoning may also cause problems
with reproduction (such as a decreased sperm count). It may
also increase blood pressure. Thus, young children, fetuses,
infants, and adults with high blood pressure are the most
vulnerable to the effects of lead.
Consumers can be exposed to lead
from paint.
Eating paint chips is one way young
children are exposed to lead. It is not the most common way
that consumers, in general, are exposed to lead. Ingesting
and inhaling lead dust that is created as lead-based paint
"chalks," chips, or peels from deteriorated surfaces can expose
consumers to lead. Walking on small paint chips found on the
floor, or opening and closing a painted frame window, can also
create lead dust. Other sources of lead include deposits that
may be present in homes after years of use of leaded gasoline and
from industrial sources like smelting. Consumers can also
generate lead dust by sanding lead-based paint or by scraping or
heating lead-based paint.
Lead dust can settle on floors,
walls, and furniture. Under these conditions, children
c
an ingest lead dust from hand-to-mouth con- tact or in food.
Settled lead dust can re-enter the air through cleaning, such as
sweeping or vacuuming, or by movement of people throughout the
house.
Older homes may contain lead based
paint.
Lead was used as a pigment and
drying agent in "alkyd" oil based paint. "Latex" water based
paints generally have not contained lead. About two-thirds of
the homes built before 1940 and one-half of the homes built from
1940 to 1960 contain heavily leaded paint. Some homes built
after 1960 also contain heavily leaded paint. It may be on
any interior or exterior surface, particularly on woodwork, doors,
and windows. In 1978, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commission lowered the legal maximum lead content in most kinds of
paint to 0.06% (a trace amount). Consider having the paint in
homes constructed before the 1980s tested for lead before
renovating or if the paint or underlying surface is
deteriorating. This is particularly important if infants,
children, or pregnant women are
present.