Lead-based paint deterioration

When lead-based paint deteriorates or is worn away via normal wear and tear, fine lead dust is generated. This dust settles on the floor and hard surfaces where young children come into contact with it during the course of normal play and hand-to-mouth contact. Lead dust can also be produced by lead-bearing soil being tracked into the home. 

Releases from lead-based paints are frequently confined to the area in the immediate vicinity of painted surfaces, and deterioration or removal of the paint can result in high localized concentrations of lead in indoor air (from sanding and sandblasting) and on exposed surfaces. 

One can compare the biomarker-based risk derived for lead with population-based biomonitoring results. Data from NHANES 2000-2001 can be used to estimate the number of children in the United States who have increased blood lead (CDC 2005). Blood lead in U.S. children declined dramatically after the removal of lead from gasoline—from a median of 15 pg/dL in 1978 to 2 pg/dL in 1999 (Rogan and Ware 2003). Nonetheless, an estimated 1.6% of U.S. children 1-5 years old had blood lead greater than 10 pg/dL in 1999-2002, according to NHANES data (CDC 2005). The major exposure sources of lead for U.S. children are deterioration of lead-based paint and the resulting dust and soil contamination (CDC 2005). 

Some individuals and families may be exposed to additional lead in their homes. This is particularly true of older homes that contain lead based paint. In an attempt to reduce the amount of exposure due to deteriorating leaded paint, the p>aint is commonly removed from homes by burning, scraping or sanding. These activities have been found to result to at least temporarily, in higher levels of exposure for families residing in those homes. Special... 

The term lead-based paint hazard means any condition that causes exposure to lead from lead-contaminated dust, lead-contaminated soil, lead-contaminated paint that is deteriorated or present in accessible surfaces, friction surfaces, or impact surfaces that would result in adverse human health effects as established by the Administrator under this subchapter. 

Lead-based paint becomes a hazard when it becomes accessible to small children. This happens when paint deteriorates. Paint deterioration can take the more obvious form of chipping, peeling, or chalking, or the more subtle form of wearing away to a fine dust. Both the level of maintenance of the home and the initial preparation of the surface before it was painted affect how well paint will hold up over the years. Paint deterioration is generally caused by either moisture or poor bonding due to inadequate preparation of the surface before it was painted. 

Some advocates insist that every child has the right to live in a home that is LEAD-FREE. As long as there is lead-based paint on the walls of homes, there is a potential danger to public health. Even if the paint is intact today, it will eventually deteriorate or be disrupted in such a way as to become accessible, and harmful, to children. Lead is a toxin and should not be found in housing, period. 

A more recent piece of U.S. legislation with a lead focus was Title X of the Housing and Community Development Act, referred to as the 1992 Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act or simply Title X. Tide X provides a number of steps to eliminate the most hazardous of lead-painted residences in public and certain classes of private housing. Its guiding purpose was to develop a national approach to creating infrastructure to eliminate hazards as rapidly as possible. Some provisions of the legislation as interpreted by HUD and EPA are controversial, particularly in the matter of interim controls of lead paint exposures in the most deteriorated living units. 

Although the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) banned the residential use of lead-based paint in 1978, millions of children remain at risk for exposure to lead from deteriorating paint in older homes. Lead poisoning is especially harmful to children under the age of 5 years because it interferes with growth and development and it has been shown to lower IQ. Symptoms of chronic exposure to lead include diminished appetite, nausea, malaise, and convulsions. Blood lead level fBLL), expressed as micrograms per deciliter (p.g/dL), is used to monitor the effect of chronic exposure. A BLL < 10 p.g/dL is considered normal a BLL > 45 xg/dL requires medical and environmental intervention. At high levels (>70 p.g/dL), lead can cause seizures, coma, and death. 

Even honsehold dust can contain lead. The dust can pick up lead from deteriorating lead-based paint or from soil tracked into a home. The drinking water for a building could contain lead. A potential reason for this is the use of lead plumbing joints and lead-based solder. Today s plumbers must use lead-free solder, but that was not the case for many years. 

Lead-contaminated dust Deteriorated lead-based paint Limited areas only... 

EPA establishes dangerous levels of lead in paint, dust, and soil. These hazard standards define lead-based paint hazards in target housing and child-occupied facilities as paint-lead, dust-lead, and soil-lead hazards. A paint-lead hazard is defined as any damaged or deteriorated lead-based paint, any chewable lead-based painted surface with evidence of teeth marks, or any lead-based paint on a friction surface if lead dust levels underneath the friction surface exceed the dust-lead hazard standards. 

Deteriorating lead-based paint (peeling, chipping, chalking, cracking or damaged)... 

Coastal areas in the United States are particularly vulnerable to deterioration by mildew, and lead-based paint is unsurpassed for thwarting propagation of mildew. 

United States in household paint. Seventy percent of the houses built before 1960 have lead-based paint on interior and exterior surfaces. The ATSDR further estimates that there are 6 million homes with leaded surfaces that have decayed or deteriorated and in which 2 million young children presently reside. Ingesting lead from chipped, peeling, or chalking paint places these children at extremely high risk of lead poisoning. 

Storage of fats and oils leads to rancidity, a largely oxidative deterioration that causes development of unpleasant tastes, odors, and toxic compounds.239 Similar chemical changes account for the "drying" of oil-based paints and varnishes. These reactions occur... 

During the 1950s, lead poisoning rose, due to deteriorating lead-based house paint as... 

Interior lead-based Deteriorating paint All surfaces... 

Table II shows that houses in the reference area contained significantly more lead paint than houses around either the RSR or Dixie site, while the RSR area contained more than the Dixie area. Based on a visual inspection, the paint on the walls and trim areas was Intact and was not peeling, flaking, or otherwise deteriorating.

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