Lead-based paint contains the heavy metal “lead”. Lead is generally added to paint to increase durability, make drying faster, make its fresh appearance last longer, and resist moisture to stop corrosion.
Lead is quite dangerous even though it improves the paint performance. Lead-containing paint is a primary source of lead-poisoning which affects both children and adults. It is found that lead-poisoning may cause mental dysfunction as well as irreparable damage to the brain. Retardation of fetal growth occurs due to even a low level of lead exposure. Common problems such as increase of blood pressure, irritability, reproduction malfunction, and improper muscle co-ordination may be caused by lead-poisoning in adults. With the help of some basic testing methodologies, it is possible to easily verify the presence of lead in paint or other lead-related hazards in the household. During unsafe repainting and renovation work of households, people might get poisoned through lead-based paint.
As a preventive measure for lead-poisoning, the entire household needs to be scanned first for finding any lead-containing items. All suspected surfaces and dishware should be checked and tested. There are mainly 3 different approaches available for lead testing, viz., lead-based paint inspection, lead hazard screen, and risk assessment.
Many home test kits are available nowadays in market, which come along with a do-it-yourself guide. But officially these kits and products have not yet been evaluated and approved by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. These test kits help in detecting lead in paint, dust, soil, water, dishware, glasses, windows, floors, ceilings, walls and ceramics. The do-it-yourself home test kits are not only user-friendly but also efficient enough to accurately provide any lead-contamination information. The professional lead test kit normally contains some non-toxic paper strips which are chemically impregnated. Presence of lead up to as little as 5 ppm on a surface can be easily detected by activating the paper strips with a little water. The white test strips when put on a lead-containing surface and activated with water will instantly turn “red” if it finds a problem.
If you detect the presence of lead in your paint, then it could be dangerous for you to remove the paint yourself. Rather, the local health department should be immediately contacted and a trained professional should be looked for who can remove the lead-based paint. Many experts having specialized training for covering, replacing and removing lead-paint are available. Health professionals and government officials continuously keep on providing advice on removing lead-based paint.
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