Lead Paint - Should I be worried

Hi,

A couple of days ago I gave the skirting and door frames in my living room a light sanding in preparation to be re-painted. I didn't wear a mask and it did get somewhat dusty whilst doing it. It was a quick sanding, I didn't try and sand down to the wood, but merely a quick rough over ready for the new paint.

Anyway, since doing this, I have heard that in old homes (which mine is) lead paint will have been used originally to decorate and it is very dangerous if lead dust is breathed in.

Now I am panicking a little as to whether I have ingested lead paint. Am I worrying for nothing? I'm assuming the skirting and door frames will have been painted over at least a couple of times in the last 20yrs with newer paint and I didn't sand really deep. For all I know they have previously been stripped down so no lead paint exists anymore anyway.

I am worried though. Any advice and opinions would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Well I think you'll probably die....










...when you are about 95.

A single short exposure would do you no harm even if there is lead present.

If you were a decorator breathing it in day in day out it may be a problem.

Forget it.

Smoking cigarettes kills 1 in every 2 but people still smoke.

Your worrying over nothing, if it did contain lead the amount you would have ingested would be miniscule, so stop worrying.

Dec.

joe-90 said:

Smoking cigarettes kills 1 in every 2 but people still smoke.

Click to expand...

You made that up didn't you?!?!?

Mind you everyone with a mother eventually dies!!!!


Getting back to the OP's question- Joe and the dec are correct- your exposure has probably been the same as a day walking in London pre lead free petrol.

There are somethings that will massively increase the risk of morbidity or mortality, eg inhaling one strand of the wrong type of asbestos might well kill you in time but in general the effects of other hazards are cumulative and might be worsened by smoking at the same time as you are inhaling heated compounds in the air.

DIYers at a low risk group it is the Pros who potentially have far higher exposure levels.

I seldom wear a mask but my sanders are connected to dust extractors and I tend to smoke outside. But there was a time when i sanded with a rollie in my mouth.....

No.

The heavy metals, like lead, mercury and cadmium are not that dangerous in their metal form. Neither are they super dangerous as oxides. Lead is used for old water mains in the UK and it builds up a barrier that shields the lead anyway.

The danger is them turning into sulphates or chlorides. That makes them water soluble, so they'll dissolve in your blood. Mercury Chloride, for example, if EXTREMELY dangerous. Whereas elemental mercury is used in fillings.

Long story short, but not as short as Joe's, no I wouldn't worry too much. It'll be insoluble forms of it in the paint being used as a pigment - like the oxide (lots of metal oxides are used as pigments for paints, e.g. titanium white).

I would suggest you are careful sanding things in old houses if you don't know what they are. For example, quite a few older textured coatings on walls and ceilings are asbestos based.

Wearing a respirator will help you, but not other people around. And the dust will tend to hang around for a looooong time. The reason for asbestos (picking it as an example) being so dangerous, is that the fibres are literally microscopic and look like little pointy needles, so small that they can pop cells in your lungs. So you can't just sweep up and assume they're gone. Sweeping up is actually the opposite of what you want to do; e.g. the danger at Chernobyl now isn't the radiation, it's the radioactive dust being kicked up as people move around near it.

I buy a lot of chemicals and have lots of stuff to do with chemistry at home - all that nerdy looking glassware with spiralling bits and spinning things in it. The word toxic, even on my bottles of chemicals, is sometimes a victim of major abuse by those with an agenda to push or wishing to cover themselves against any possible liability.

Liability and pushing things is actually hurting people, by causing them to think toxic is a universal blanket.

As another example, I have a bottle of one chemical that will likely be added to your dinner today if you eat predone meat products from packs. I also have a bottle of mercury chloride. One will rot your brain and is very difficult to remove, the other is in your dinner. Both have the same skull and crossbones on.

Something that bothers me, upsettingly so, are the numerous guys who sell things based on scaring their customers and manipulating their sense of fear in such a way that they might actually hurt themselves by trusting what they're being told so much.

"THAT'LL KILL YOU! Did you realize I can sell you A POSSIBLE solution for £399?"

The government, unfortunately, does it as well. E.g. "Here's some wind turbines, we've solved the energy and environment crisis.". What people see or think and how risk, economics or energy are actually behaving are two very different things.

Lots of chemistry students use fume hoods for anything that is slightly dangerous. Fume hoods don't trap some of the most dangerous, undetectable gases. But they trust them to cover it all because it cost thousands and looks the part. They also rely on the gas getting airborne, then being recollected. There are cheaper and far more effective ways to do the same thing, but it's becoming a lost art in the "pay the £££'s, push button" approach.

As if by magic, Toolmonger just happens to have reviewed a bit of lead paint gear;

http://toolmonger.com/2010/10/21/ketts-answer-for-lead-paint-issues/#comment-1364159

Note the price tag.

John

Whilst i posted that i didn't consider the exposure of the "average" member of the public as posing a particular health risk i do feel that your post has massively underplayed the potential risks.

You have omitted to mention that lead was used in nearly all oil based paints pre 1960whatever. It was used as an oxidising agent and not just as an occasional pigment.

Additionally you have ignored the fact that the risks are increased when naked flames are present, eg burning paint off or cooking or smoking whilst dust is still floating around.

I have some sympathy re the concept of the over use of terms such as toxic but I fail to see the relevance to this thread.

I for one am glad that lead additives in paint and petrol were banned. Call me naive if you will but I do not believe that exposure to lead solely results in minimal IQ drops (as suggested in one of your posts elsewhere).

I entirely agree it IS dangerous, to some extent. But, like asbestos, provided it's not on fire or made into a dust, it's not.

My ranting isn't so much arguing that it isn't entirely harmless, it's about the guys trying to say you need a $500 saw (which is essentially a circular saw for a drill) to get it back off. That's only going to really be of use for dry wall. Skirting boards and the like can just be pulled off and replaced. It'll save money on the respirators / suits and massively reduce the dust / flake problem.