HealthHints topic index | HealthHints issue date index | Health Information for Texans | FCS Home

Lead Poisoning

Volume 1, Number 6 - July, 1997

Editors: Carol A. Rice, Ph.D., RN, Professor and Extension Health Specialist, and Janet M. Pollard, MPH, Extension Associate-Health

Inside HealthHints....

• Lead Poisoning
• Lead's Effects on the Body
• Where Lead is Found
• How Lead Gets Into the Body
• Reducing Lead Hazards
• The Law on Lead
• Testing for Lead-based Paint
• Lead Toxicity
• Lead Suspects
• Extension Resources
• Makin' Tracks in Falls County
• Websites with Reliable Information
• References

Lead Poisoning

Lead Poison Control Week is July 20-26, 1997. Lead poisoning is a serious hazard to both adults and children. It is particularly hazardous to children and pregnant women.

• Lead exposure can harm young children and babies even before they are born.
• Even children that seem healthy can have high levels of lead in their bodies.
• One out of every 11 children in the U.S. has dangerous levels of lead in the bloodstream.

Lead's Effects on the Body

Lead accumulates in the body as it is taken in by breathing lead dust or by ingestion of lead from other sources. If not detected early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can suffer from:

• damage to the brain and nervous system
• behavior and learning problems (e.g., hyperactivity)
• slowed growth
• hearing problems
• headaches.

Lead is also harmful to adults. Adults can suffer from:

• difficulties during pregnancy (as well as abnormal fetal development)
• other reproductive problems (in both men and women)
• high blood pressure
• digestive problems
• nerve disorders
• memory and concentration problems
• muscle and joint pain.

The harmful effects of lead are mostly irreversible.

Where Lead is Found

As an element, lead does not decompose, and it tends to stay in place over the years. - Ponessa, 1996

Many houses and apartments built before 1978 have paint that contains lead (i.e., lead-based paint). Houses built before 1960 usually have paint with the highest concentrations of lead. Homes built as recently as 1978, however, can also contain lead paint. Approximately 75% of homes built before 1978 (64 million dwellings) contain some lead-based paint. In 1978, the federal government banned lead-based paint from housing.

Lead from paint, chips, and dust can be seriously hazardous if not cared for properly. Paint, dust and soil are the most common lead hazards.

Other lead hazards also exist, including:

• drinking water (plumbing with lead or lead solder)
• old painted toys and furniture
• food and liquids stored in lead crystal or lead-glazed pottery or porcelain
• hobbies that use lead (e.g., making pottery or stained glass; refinishing furniture)
• occupations where you work with lead, which could be brought home on hands or clothes (e.g., plumbers, pipe fitters, printers, auto mechanics, body shop workers, home remodelers, construction workers)
• folk remedies that contain lead (e.g., "greta" and "azarcon" used to treat an upset stomach).

Note: There is no lead in a pencil. The "lead" in a pencil is actually made out of graphite.

How Lead Gets Into the Body

People can get lead in their body if they:

• Put their hands or other objects covered with lead dust in their mouths.
• Eat paint chips or soil that contains lead.
• Breathe in lead dust (especially during renovations that disturb painted surfaces).

Lead is even more dangerous to children than adults because:

• Babies and young children often put their hands and other objects in their mouths. These objects can have lead dust on them.
• Children's growing bodies absorb more lead.
• Children's brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead.

Reducing Lead Hazards

If you think your home may have high levels of lead, it is important to take steps to protect against lead poisoning.

Get Your Child Tested

Children should be first tested at a year old, or six months if you think your home may have lead in it or you are living in an older home. Children older than one should be tested every couple of years, or every year if your house or apartment contains lead, or if you use lead in your job or hobby.

A child who appears healthy can have high levels of lead in the bloodstream. Some signs of lead poisoning may include:

• cranky, restless, tired a lot
• sick to the stomach
• poor appetite
• not sleeping well,

but these signs are vague and may not be present in your child at all. You really can't tell if a child has lead poisoning unless you have him/her tested. A blood test takes only 10 minutes and results should be ready within a week. The test is usually done by pricking the finger for a small blood sample. If high lead levels are detected, a larger sample may be taken.

To find out where to have your child tested, call your doctor or local health clinic.

Keep Areas Clean

Children commonly chew on surfaces, put their hands and toys in their mouth, and need to be told or helped to wash hands before eating. Children can swallow lead, eat lead chips, eat soil containing lead particles, or breath contaminated lead dust. Thus, it is important to:

• Keep areas where children play as dust-free and clean as possible.
• Wash pacifiers and bottles that drop on the floor.
• Wash toys and stuffed animals regularly.
• Make sure children wash their hands before meals, nap time, and bed time.
• Mop floors and wipe window ledges, cribs and other chewable surfaces with a solution of powdered automatic dishwasher detergent in warm water. (Dishwasher detergents are recommended because they have a high phosphate content, which is effective in cleaning lead dust.) Don't sweep or vacuum to remove lead dust, this only spreads it into the air.

Reduce the Risk Inside and Outside the Home

In most cases, lead-based paint that is in good condition is not hazardous. Places where paint surfaces rub against each other, however, such as where windows open and close, create lead dust and are hazardous. Additionally, small pieces of peeling or chipping lead paint in and around the home, are especially dangerous if eaten.

To reduce the risk of lead poisoning:

• Make sure children don't chew on any surface covered with lead-based paint, such as window sills, cribs, or playpens.
• Don't burn painted wood because it may contain lead.
• If you work with lead on the job or as a hobby, change your clothes before you go home.
• Encourage children to play in sandy or grassy areas, rather than in dirt that can stick to hands and toys and carry pieces of lead. Keep children from eating dirt as best you can, and make sure they wash their hands when they come inside. (Lead can also be present in soil along streets and highways due to years of exhaust fumes from leaded gasoline, which stays in the environment rather than decomposing.)

Don't Remove Lead-based Paint Yourself

Poisoning can occur as a result of scraping and sanding lead-based paint. Take the following steps to make renovations or remove lead in your home:

• Contact your local or state health department to have your home tested for lead paint. Some will test for free. (Home test kits are not recommended because they often cannot detect small amounts of lead.)
• Hire a professional to correct or remove lead-based paint from your home. It is essential to have someone who knows how to safely work with lead paints using appropriate equipment and cleanup. Do not try to remove the paint yourself.
• Have all occupants leave the building until all work is done and cleaned-up, especially children and pregnant women.

Get Lead Out of Your Drinking Water

Many older homes have plumbing materials that contain lead. Boiling water will not reduce the amount of lead in your drinking water. (Bathing is not a problem because lead is not absorbed through the skin; rather, lead is absorbed by ingestion.) To reduce the lead hazard in drinking water:

• Call your local health department or water supplier to see how to get your water tested. (This is a simple procedure, which will probably cost $15 to $20.)
• If your water has not been tested or has high levels of lead, it is important to know that the water will contain more lead if it stands for a long time, is hot, or is naturally acidic. Be sure to:
  1. not drink, cook, or make baby formula with water from a hot water tap;
  2. run cold water for 30 to 60 seconds before drinking or using for cooking if it hasn't been used for 2 hours or longer
  3. consider buying a filter certified for lead removal. (Call EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791 for more information.

Eat Right

Make sure children eat nutritious, low-fat meals high in iron, calcium, and zinc. Lead can be absorbed by the body and take the place of iron, calcium, or zinc. Children who get enough iron, calcium, and zinc and keep fat intake down will absorb less lead (diets high in fat allow lead to accumulate in the body more easily).

• Iron-rich foods include eggs, lean red meats, chicken, iron-fortified cereals, raisins, dried fruits, spinach, peanut butter, wheat germ, and beans.
• Calcium-rich foods include milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products as well as corn tortillas, tofu, and bean curd.
• Zinc-rich foods include meat, fish, chicken, dried beans and lentils, milk, cheese, eggs, clams, oysters, mussels, and crab.

Be sure not to store foods and beverages in lead crystal glassware or imported or old pottery or porcelain, which may have a lead glaze. Additionally, if you use plastic storage bags, be sure to place any printed identification on the outside of the bag.

The Law on Lead

As of 1996, the federal law requires that individuals receive certain information before renting, buying or renovating pre-1978 housing:

• Landlords have to disclose known information on lead-based paint hazards before leases take effect. Leases must include a federal form about lead-based paint.
• Sellers have to disclose known information on lead-based paint hazards before selling a house. Sales contracts must include a federal form about lead-based paints in the building. Buyers will have up to 10 days to check for lead hazards.
• Renovators are required to give you the "Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home" pamphlet from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

For more information, you can contact the National Lead Information Clearinghouse at 1-800-424-LEAD.

Testing for Lead-based Paint

Types of Testing

There are two basic types of lead-based paint testing, inspection and risk assessment.

1. Inspection -- a paint inspection tells you the lead content of every painted surface in your home. It does not tell you whether the paint is a hazard or how you should deal with it.
2. Risk Assessment -- a risk assessment tells you if there are any sources of serious lead exposure (e.g., peeling paint, lead dust). It also tells you what actions to take to address these hazards.
   

Professional Methods of Testing

Professional testing companies use two basic methods to measure lead in paint:

1. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) -- this method uses a portable detector that x-rays the painted surfaces in your home to measure the amount of lead in each layer of paint. This testing is done in the home and causes little, if any, paint disturbance.
2. Laboratory testing of paint samples -- this method uses paint samples from the different surfaces in your home. These samples are usually about two square inches. Samples are not tested in the home, rather they are sent to a laboratory for analysis. This method leaves bare spots on the surfaces tested.

In Texas, it is required that lead inspectors, as well as those performing renovations or lead abatement, must be state certified. For more information on certified inspection training and abatement, contact the Texas Department of Health toll free at 1-888-778-9940.

Home test kits for lead are available, but recent studies suggest they are not always accurate. Consumers should not rely on these tests before renovations or for assuring safety.

Lead poisoning often goes unnoticed and the effects can be permanent. Exposure to lead is linked to lower IQ scores, speech and hearing difficulties, and learning disabilities. It can also affect behavior and motor skills. Lead can cause anemia (low iron) and other health problems. A pregnant woman can easily pass lead to her unborn child. In extreme cases, lead poisoning can even cause death.
-Growing Up Safe: Protecting Your Child from Lead Poisoning

Lead Toxicity

Data collected in the 1970s suggested that only about 2% of the United States population had elevated blood levels of 30 micrograms per deciliter of blood or higher (30 ug/dl). Today, we know that lead toxicity (blood levels of 30 ug/dl or greater) affects nearly 700,000 American children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years.

We also know that prolonged exposure to lead can lead to serious complications; blood levels of 80 ug/dl can cause convulsions, coma, and even death, while lower levels can cause problems with the nervous system, kidneys, and blood cells. Blood lead levels as low as 10 ug/dl can cause impairment of mental and physical development.

This growing evidence has shown us that lead is toxic for children at levels previously thought to be harmless (10-15 ug/dl of blood). Thus, "the burden of suffering from this disorder is considerably higher than previously assumed, affecting 17% of American Children (about 2-3 million)" (CPMC, 1996).

We also know that an area of particular concern for ingestion of lead-based paint chips, dust, and plaster comes from dilapidated homes built before 1950 -- most often found in low-income, urban neighborhoods. "As a result, about 19% of black children who are poor or who live in the center of large American cities have lead levels about 30 ug/dl. Fully 55% of poor black children have blood lead levels greater than 15 ug/dl" (CPMC, 1996).

The potentially irreversible effects of lead poisoning in children make special efforts to detect lead toxicity crucial. Early detection of lead toxicity can allow environmental hazard professionals and health care providers to recommend measures to limit further exposure to lead.

Lead Suspects

Even if you don't live in an older home, you may still be exposed to lead. Look around your home (old or new) for the following lead suspect items:

• Imported crayons. The Texas Department of Health Product Safety Division has found that some of the paper crayon wrappers contain lead. The colors "#70DBDB" and orange have been the most suspect for containing lead.
• Imported, non-glossy, vinyl miniblinds. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found that, over time, the plastic deteriorates from exposure to heat and sunlight leaving behind lead dust. As of July 1, 1996, these blinds were replaced in stores by blinds without lead; however, blinds containing lead could still be present in your home, if installed before this time.
• Imported ceramic ware. Ceramic ware, especially ceramic mugs may contain lead in their glaze. FDA found that about 80% of adult lead exposure came from food contact with ceramic hollowware -- particularly when frequently drinking hot and or acidic beverages. Additionally, beware of ceramic dinnerware with decorative paint, pewter, lead crystal, and silver-plated hollowware. Antiques can be particularly dangerous because they may leach lead into food and beverages more readily.
• Imported canned items. Imported canning processes often use a lead solder to seal the can together. This is a particular concern when canned items are brought across the Mexico border to the U.S.
• Foil capsules on imported and domestic wine bottles. The foil capsule found on a wine bottle is often lead foil coated with tin. FDA has proposed a regulation prohibiting use of these capsules on wine bottles. Many European and U.S. producers have already stopped using them; but FDA advises consumers to wipe the rim of the cork with a damp cloth where these capsules are still used.

For a lead testing kit to detect items that release large amounts of lead, contact the FDA office at (301) 443-4667. (Keep in mind, these home test kits only detect large amounts of lead, and may not be sensitive to smaller amounts.)

Extension Resources

Prevention Kit

• Sesame Street: Lead Away (Prevention kit includes the VHS, 15 minutes. Lead poisoning video in English, cassette in English and Spanish, 10 copies of the Lead Away booklet "Lead: The Silent Threat" in English and Spanish -- all featuring the Sesame Street characters to be understood by children and families.)

Video

• For the Children: Lead Testing (VHS, 24 minutes -- Intended for parents, educators and clinicians, this video explains the health risks to growing children who experience excessive lead exposure. It also emphasizes the importance of getting a blood/lead test at a local health department and demonstrates what you can do to reduce your family's exposure to lead around the home.)

Fact Sheet

• Drinking Water and Health (B-1655 -- Discusses the importance of quality drinking water as well as concerns including lead contamination. Discusses ways to minimize exposure.)

Slide Set

• Health Effects of Drinking Water Contamination (SS 1252 -- This set will explain what contaminants may be in your drinking water, how they may affect human health, and how drinking water contaminants are regulated.)

Leader Training Packet

• Healthy Indoor Air for American's Homes: Lead in the Home Instructional Module (Educational Resource Library -- Script and transparencies on the problem of lead poisoning, sources of lead, health effects, lead and kids, detection, remediation, risk reduction, permanent measures, and real estate issues.)

Makin' Tracks in Falls County

Lillianne Goeders, County Extension Agent-Falls County, and Donna Garrett, Central Texas HERO Coordinator, are Makin' Tracks in Falls County with their Makin' Tracks! Physical Activity Challenge.

Makin' Tracks! is a collaborative effort between the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Falls County and Marlin Main Street Project, Falls Community Hospital and Clinic, and Texas Department of Health Region 7 Healthier Hearts Program. This program is designed to encourage Falls County residents to make regular physical activity a lifelong, healthy habit.

Makin Tracks! began on June 14, 1997, with a kick off celebration and walk around downtown Marlin. The program will conclude December 5, 1997. Participants enrolled in Makin' Tracks! receive a program information packet containing the following:

• program guidelines
• participant release form
• Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q)
• map of downtown Marlin Main Street (similar to Monopoly Board)
• monthly tracking forms for recording their physical activity.

Participants who reach set monthly goals are eligible for prize drawings. Prizes have been donated by Marlin businesses and other businesses in the Central Texas area. Participants also have the benefit of receiving free monthly newletters and opportunities to attend free monthly workshops and screenings. To entice participants to attend these workshops, they are given bonus "locomotion miles" when they attend.

Currently, there are 140 people enrolled in Makin' Tracks! For more information, contact Donna Garratt (817) 778-4066 or Lillianne Goeders (254) 883-1413.

 

---

References

We would like to acknowledge use of the following sources of information in this publication:

• Adams, P.F. Lead Poisoning and the Importance of a Proper Diet. Penn State Cooperative Extension.
• Children's Medical Center-Dayton. Growing Up Safe Campaign: Protecting Your Child from Lead Poisoning [on-line]. Available: http://www.cmc-dayton.org/Lead_Poisoning.asp.
• Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (CPMC). (1996). Guide to Clinical Preventative Services: Screening for Lead Toxicity [on-line]. Available: http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/health.sci/gcps/gcps035.html.
• Foulke. J.E. (1993). Lead threats lessen, but mugs pose problem. FDA Consumer Magazine.
• Lead Basic Facts [on-line]. Available: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/lead.html.
• National Safety Council (1997). National Lead Information Center: Lead Poisoning and Your Child [on-line]. Available: http://www.nsc.org/ehc/nlic/ledepa.htm.
• National Safety Council (1997). National Lead Information Center: Lead Testing [on-line]. Available: http://www.nsc.org/ehc/nlic/ledkit.htm.
• Ponessa, J.T. (1996). Healthy Indoor Air for America's Homes: Lead in the Home. Rutgers Cooperative Extension.
• SimpleWays to Help Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning [on-line]. Available: http://www.parentsplace.com/health/safetyrecalls/articles/0,10335,239332_110087,00.html.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1995). Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home [on-line]. Available: gopher://cpsc.gov:70/00/CPSC_Pubs/iaq/4426.txt.
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (1997). Lead Alert: HUD and EPA Move to Protect Children from Lead-Based Paint Poisoning [on-line]. Available: http://www.hud.gov/leadbase.html.

---

HealthHints topic index | HealthHints issue date index | Health Information for Texans | FCS Home

Last updated: 7 January, 2008

You will need the free Adobe Reader in order to view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. If you do not have Adobe Reader, you may download the software from the Adobe web site, and install it on your computer.

Educational programs of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age, or national origin.