In Oregon an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 children have lead poisoning. Lead is an invisible hazard that can impose lasting health effects. Lead poisoning often occurs before parents are even aware their child has been put at risk.
The parents of a one-year old boy began renovating their newly purchased 1907 house. They all lived in a downstairs apartment during the remodeling work, which included sanding and scraping away coats of old paint.
| How-to Protect Your Family From Lead Paint. • Keep paint in good condition • Learn how to safely repaint, remodel, and maintain painted surfaces • Keep children and pets away from the work area • Hire remodelers and painters who know how to work safely with lead paint • Keep your home free of lead dust • Wet-mop floors and wet-wipe windowsills and other surfaces to remove lead dust • Clean or remove shoes before entering the home to avoid tracking in lead from soil • Don’t allow adults to bring lead dust from hobbies or work places into your home • Keep your child healthy • Wash your child’s hands often, especially before meals and after playing outside • Wash toys, stuffed animals, bottles, and pacifiers often to remove lead dust • Provide regular healthy meals and snacks to reduce the effects of lead • Use only cold-flushed water for drinking, cooking, or making baby • Do not use home remedies or cosmetics that may contain lead • Do not use imported, old, or handmade pottery to cook, store, or serve food or drinks • If your children are at risk for lead poisoning, have their blood tested. |
Then someone told them that all this work might be creating a health risk for their young son. They took him in for a blood test, which showed he had a blood lead level that was more than five times the average.
What Had Happened?
The parents had not used lead-safe remodeling methods. An on-site investigation of the home was performed. They found lead dust levels up to 50 times above the acceptable standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Although anyone can get lead poisoning, it is most dangerous to young and unborn children because their bodies and brains are still developing. For that reason, pregnant women and families with children younger than age six should take special care to avoid exposure to lead.
Here’s Why:
Low levels of lead can affect a child’s ability to read and learn. Childhood lead poisoning can also cause learning disabilities, developmental delays, lowered intelligence, behavioral, attention problems, and stunted growth. In adults, high lead levels can cause high blood pressure, digestive and reproductive problems, nerve disorders, and kidney damage.
Children with lead poisoning may not look or act sick. And, when they do, the signs may look like other illnesses. And because lead poisoning often occurs with no obvious symptoms, it frequently goes unrecognized. The only way to know if a child is poisoned is by a blood test to measure the amount of lead in the blood.
A healthcare provider can determine if a child needs a blood lead test. All children should be checked for risk of lead exposure at one and two years of age or between the ages of three and five if they haven’t previously been checked.
Most childhood exposures come from lead dust, usually through getting lead dust on their hands or toys and then putting their hands or other objects in their mouth. Prior to 1978, and, especially before 1950, lead was a common additive to house paint. Parents should be aware that windows, doors, steps, and porches are areas where surfaces rub together and can create lead dust.
Lead dust mixes with household dust and can gather on surfaces, in carpets, and on toys. Home repair and remodeling done where there is lead paint can create serious health hazards if work and clean-up are not done properly. Traditional paint preparation such as dry scraping and power sanding creates and spreads large amounts of paint, dust, and debris.
Nearly half of the childhood lead poisoning cases investigated in Oregon are related to remodeling. But lead can also be found in lead solder or household plumbing, soil around homes, ceramics or pottery, certain hobbies, and folk medicines. Parents who work in industries that use lead, such as painting, remodeling, and radiator repair, can also bring lead home on their clothing, exposing children to the hazard.
The Oregon Department of Human Services Lead-Based Paint Program provides free training and educational materials on testing for lead. Hiring trained professionals that practice lead-safe remodeling. The good news is that lead poisoning is completely preventable if precautions are taken and hazards are identified and removed.
If you are planning on remodeling or painting, call for more information and learn how to protect your family from lead poisoning. Visit www.healthoregon.org/lead or call the Leadline at 800-368-5060 statewide; in the Portland area call 503-988-4000.
Barbara Zeal is a health educator in the Oregon Department of Human Services Lead-Based Paint and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.
