Lead-based paint contains the heavy metal “lead”. Normally, lead is added to paint in order to make drying faster, increase durability, resist moisture, and make the fresh appearance long lasting.
No doubt the paint quality gets enhanced because of the presence of lead; but lead is a very harmful substance. Lead-poisoning affects both adults and children, and one of the major sources of this poisoning is lead-paint. Lead-poisoning is found to cause permanent brain damage and mental dysfunction. It also affects the growth of a fetus with a minute level of exposure. Common problems such as increase of blood pressure, irritability, reproduction malfunction, and improper muscle co-ordination may be caused by lead-poisoning in adults. It’s easy to verify, through some testing methods, whether lead is present in your paint or if there is any health hazard in your house arising out of lead paint. People normally get poisoned through lead-paint during building renovation or repainting work without following safety steps.
As a preventive measure for lead-poisoning, the entire household needs to be scanned first for finding any lead-containing items. Suspected surfaces and dishware must be examined. There are mainly 3 different approaches available for lead testing, viz., lead-based paint inspection, lead hazard screen, and risk assessment.
Nowadays, there are many do-it-yourself (DIY) home test kits available in the market. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission of the United States has not yet approved and evaluated any of these products. These test kits help in detecting lead in paint, dust, soil, water, dishware, glasses, windows, floors, ceilings, walls and ceramics. The DIY test kits are quite user-friendly and can be used to know easily and accurately information about lead contamination. The professional home test kits contain some non-poisonous chemically processed strips of paper. Presence of lead up to as little as 5 ppm on a surface can be easily detected by activating the paper strips with a little water. The test strips are normally white in color, but they have the quality of turning instantly to red when they detect lead on a surface after getting activated with water.
In case you happen to discover lead-based paint present in your house, it is advisable not to try to remove the paint yourself. It is advised to consult the local health department first and find out a lead-paint-removing expert. There are many professionals available for removing, replacing, or covering lead-based paint. Health professionals and government officials continuously keep on providing advice on removing lead-based paint.
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Paint lead test