Where Does Lead Come From?
Lead poisoning is one of the most serious health threats for children in and around the home.
Your children can be poisoned if they get lead in their bodies. Lead may cause learning and behavior problems. It may damage hearing and the nervous system, including the brain. Lead was used in paint, water pipes, gasoline, pottery, and other places. Even though this metal is not used as much anymore, it remains where it was used. The paint on your walls and windowsills may have lead in it. Household dust (from old, worn paint) may have lead. Your drinking water may have lead from your pipes or the solder that joins pipes together. Even the soil outside your home may have lead in it. Determining if your home has lead is important.
How Can Lead Poison Your Child?
There are many ways. Young children put their hands and everything else in their mouths to eat the dust or chips of lead-based paint without knowing it. Even bits of paint too small to see can come off
windows, doors, and walls, creating lead dust. Children who crawl on the floor, put toys in their mouths, or play in the soil around their home or daycare can be poisoned. Children with too much lead in their bodies may not look or feel sick. A simple blood test is the only way to know if your child is exposed to lead. Ask your doctor or healthcare provider to test your child for lead. Lead paint that is in good shape is not an immediate problem. It may be a risk in the future, though.
• Do you live in an older home? Many older homes have lead-based paint or lead water pipes. Lead paint was banned in 1978. Homes built before 1950 will likely have lead in paint and water pipes.
• Is there cracking, chipping, or flaking paint in your home?
• Are there places where paint is rubbed, such as on a door or window frame? This can make dust that has lead in it.
• Do you have water pipes made with lead or joined with lead solder? Water that flows through them may contain lead. Lead pipes are dull gray and scratch easily with a key or penny.
• Has your home been recently remodeled or renovated? Projects may leave dust or paint chips with lead.
• Is there lead in the soil outside your home? It may have gotten there from paint on the outside of the building or from industry. Or it may have come from car exhaust from the days when gasoline contained lead. Children can be poisoned if they play in soil that has lead in it or if someone tracks the soil inside the home.
• Does someone you live with work where lead is used? Some jobs that might create lead dust are construction, bridge building, sandblasting, shipbuilding, plumbing, battery making and recycling, car repair, furniture refinishing, and foundry casting. Workers can bring lead dust home on clothing, skin, or shoes.
• Do you have children under six without a blood test for lead? Young children should be tested for lead. This is especially true if you live in an older home, if your home has recently been remodeled, or if a brother, sister, or playmate has tested high for lead. Ask your doctor to test your children beginning at six months of age and then every year until age six.
Have neighbor children or playmates ever had a high blood lead test?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, your children may be at risk for lead poisoning. Look at the Action Steps on the next page to learn how to protect your children’s health!
Find Out if Your Home Has Lead
• You may need to have your home or water tested. Your local or state health department can tell you how to do this for little or no cost. Many hardware stores also sell low-cost lead testing kits.
• Don’t try to remove lead on your own. Trained and certified workers should do it. Getting rid of lead in the wrong way can make the problem worse! Children and pregnant women need to stay away during a lead
removal project.
