Is your Wall Paint safe for Kids? Know the risks of Lead in Paints
Lead may be present in hazardous concentrations in food, water, and air. According to source, any building built before 1978 may have lead paint and improper maintenance of building can become a constant risk to the health family especially young children, other household occupants and pets. Lead affects all organs and functions of the body to varying degrees. Women should take steps to ensure that they do not have excessive lead exposure during pregnancy. Lead poisoning can be hard to detect. The signs and symptoms usually don’t appear until dangerous amounts have accumulated.
A recent analysis of popular branded paints by Quality Council of India, in association with Consumer Association of India, reveals unacceptable amount of lead in paints, hazardous to human health and detrimental to a child’s development.
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Tips to Reduce the Risk of Lead Poisoning
Although lead improves paint performance, it is a dangerous substance. It is especially damaging to children under age six whose bodies are still developing. It can cause learning problems and serious illness to children. Humans can be poisoned during unsafe renovations or repainting jobs on housing that has lead paint. Following are some useful tips or methods to reduce the risk of lead poisoning in your home or apartment.
- Regularly clean floors, window sills, and other surfaces. Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) Filter.
- If you own property that was built before 1978, there is a high probability that it has lead paint in it. If there is lead paint, have a risk assessment done to determine whether the lead is a hazard.
- Lead dust collects on surfaces where children put their hands and play with toys. Wash children’s hands, bottles, pacifiers, and toys often.
- Take precautions to avoid exposure to lead dust when remodeling or renovating
- Deteriorating lead paint and lead-containing household dust are the main causes of chronic lead poisoning. Therefore, special precautions must be taken when removing lead paint. Don’t try to remove lead-based paint yourself. Let the expert do them for you.
- If you work with lead, you could bring it home on your hands or clothes. Launder your work clothes separately from the rest of your family’s clothes.
- Don’t use candles that contains lead in their wicks. A small percentage of candles sold today still contain lead in their wicks. Burning such candles could emit relatively large amounts of lead into the air.
- Lead testing kits are commercially available for detecting the presence of lead in the household.
- You should keep children and other occupants (especially infants, pregnant women, and adults with high blood pressure) out of the work area until the job is completed. Screening programs exist to test the blood of children at high risk for lead exposure.
- Persons from the health department can help by inspecting your home for old peeling paint and getting workers to remove the paint or cover it with new paint.
Lead-based paint is the most common source of lead exposure. In some older toys, and even some newer ones imported from overseas, contain lead either in the paint or in some of its parts. Toddlers explore their world by putting things in their mouths. Children can get lead poisoning by chewing on pieces of peeling paint or by swallowing house dust or soil that contains tiny chips of the leaded paint from the buildings.
It is also a good idea to repaint the rooms to seal in the lead paint. Wash children’s hands, bottles, pacifiers, and toys often. Have a risk assessment done in your home or apartment to determine the lead level in your home or apartment. If you think your children or family members have been exposed to lead paint dust or paint chips, contact your Doctor immediately.
