Lead Poisoning - protect your children.
Get your child tested.
Even children who appear healthy may have high levels of lead. You can’t tell if a child has lead poisoning unless you have him or her tested. A blood test takes only ten minutes, and results should be ready within a week.
- The Centers for Disease Control recommend that children be tested for the first time when they are a year old, or at six months if you live in an older building or suspect that your home has lead in it.
- Children older than one year should have a blood test every couple of years or every year if your house or apartment contains lead paint, or if you use lead in your job or hobby.
- To find out where to have your child tested, call your doctor or local health clinic.
Keep it clean.
Ordinary dust and dirt may
contain lead. Children can swallow or breathe lead particles if they play in dust or dirt
and then put their fingers or toys in their mouths
(or if they eat without washing their hands first).
- Keep the areas where your children play as dust-free and clean as possible.
- Wash pacifiers and bottles after they fall on the floor. Keep extras handy.
- Mop floors and wipe window ledges and chewable surfaces such as cribs with a solution of powdered automatic dishwasher detergent in warm water. Do this twice each week. Wear gloves to avoid possible skin irritation. (Dishwasher detergents are recommended because of their high-phosphate content. Most multi-purpose cleaners do not contain phosphates and are not effective in cleaning lead dust.)
- Wash toys and stuffed animals regularly.
- Make sure your children wash their hands before meals, nap time, and bed time.
Reduce the risk from lead paint.
Most homes built before 1960 contain heavily leaded paint. Some homes built as recently as 1978 may also contain lead paint. This paint could be on window frames, walls, the outside of your house, or other surfaces. Tiny pieces of peeling or chipping lead paint are dangerous if eaten. Lead paint in good condition is not usually a problem except in places where painted surfaces rub against each other and create dust. (For example, when you open a window, the painted surfaces rub against each other.)
- Make sure your child does not chew on anything covered with lead paint, such as painted window sills, cribs, or playpens.
- Don’t burn painted wood. It may contain lead.
Don’t remove lead paint yourself.
Families have been poisoned by scraping or sanding lead paint. These activities generate large amounts of lead dust. Lead dust from repairs or renovations of older buildings can remain in the building long after work is completed. Heating lead paint may release lead into the air.
- Ask your state health department if they will test your home for lead paint. Some will test for free. Home test kits cannot detect small amounts of lead under some conditions.
- Hire a person with special training for correcting lead paint problems to remove lead paint from your home, someone who knows how to do this work safely and has the proper equipment to clean up thoroughly.
- All occupants, especially children and pregnant women, should leave the building until all work is finished and a thorough cleanup is done.
Don’t bring lead dust into your home.
If you work in construction, demolition or painting, with batteries, or in a radiator repair shop or lead factory, or if your hobby involves lead, you may unknowingly bring lead into your home on your hands or clothes. You may also be tracking in lead from the soil around your home. Soil very close to homes may be contamainated from lead paint on the outside of the building. Soil by roads or highways may be contaminated from years of exhaust fumes from cars and trucks that used leaded gas.
- If you work with lead in your job or a hobby, change your clothes before you go home.
- Encourage your children to play in sandy or grassy areas instead of dirt which sticks to fingers and toys. Try to keep your children from eating dirt, and make sure they wash their hands when they come inside.
Get lead out of your drinking water.
Most well or city water does not naturally contain lead. Water usually picks up lead inside your home from household plumbing that is made with lead materials. Boiling the water will not reduce the amount of lead. Bathing is not a problem because lead does not enter the body through the skin.
- The only way to know if you have lead in your water is to have it tested. Call your local water supplier to see how to get it tested. Testing your water is easy and cheap (usually between $15-$25).
- Household water will contain more lead if it has sat for a long time in the pipes, is hot, or is naturally acidic.
- If your water has not been tested or has high levels of lead:
do not drink, cook, or make baby formula with water from the hot water tap.
Eat right.
A child who gets enough iron and calcium will absorb less lead. Foods rich in iron include eggs, lean red meat, and beans. Dairy products are also high in calcium.
- Don’t store food or liquid in lead crystal glassware or imported or old pottery.
- If you reuse plastic bags to store or carry food, keep the printing on the outside of the bag.
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