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What can I do to protect my kids?
If you are a tenant, ask your landlord to fix any chipping or peeling paint in your apartment, in any common areas like a laundry room, and where your children play. In the meantime, keep your children away from the chipping or peeling paint. Sometimes you can temporarily cover the paint with tape or contact paper until it is fixed. Clean up any paint chips with a wet sponge or rag right away. Don’t let your children chew on window sills or other painted surfaces. If your landlord doesn’t fix the paint, you can complain to your local health or housing department, or the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Chipping or peeling paint is usually a violation of the housing code. If your apartment was built before 1978 (the year lead paint was banned), it may be a health hazard, especially if there’s a child under six or a pregnant woman in the house. Read about your legal rights in the section Your Rights When There is Lead in Your Home.
Lead dust gets on children’s hands and toys. They get lead in their bodies when they put their hands or toys in their mouths. So wash your children’s hands frequently, especially after playing, before they eat, and before they take a nap. Wash bottles, pacifiers, toys, and anything else they put in their mouths. Keep your apartment as clean as possible, especially the areas where your children play. Wash floors and window sills with warm water and a household cleaner at least once a week. Rinse the mop or rag well as you clean. You can reduce the amount of lead-contaminated dirt that gets tracked into your home by having people take off their shoes when they come in.
Have your children under six years old tested for lead. That’s the only way to know for sure if they are getting too much lead in their bodies. Read the section about testing for lead.
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Can the food your kids eat make a difference with lead?
Yes. What you eat affects how much lead your body absorbs. You want to absorb as little lead as possible. Foods with iron and calcium keep the body from absorbing more lead. Lean meats and chicken, fish (like tuna and sardines), greens (like collards and spinach), cooked dried beans, nuts, wheat germ, and eggs are some of the foods that have iron. Leafy green vegetables, yogurt, cheeses, milk, and foods made with milk (like puddings, custards, hot chocolate, and pancakes) have calcium. Foods that have a lot of vitamin C (like oranges, tomatoes, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, strawberries, and lemons) also help the body in fighting lead.
Try not to serve fatty, greasy foods, because they let children’s bodies absorb more lead. Cook your food by broiling, baking, or boiling, and use less oil and butter in cooking. Avoid letting your children have foods like potato chips, doughnuts, French fries, and pastries. Also, children should eat three to four times a day. Empty stomachs absorb more lead.
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My landlord is never going to replace all the plumbing in my house. Is there anything I can do about lead in the pipes?
Yes. Use cold water for cooking and drinking. Hot water carries more lead in it than cold water does. Start with cold water to make hot drinks like coffee and tea. It’s also a good idea to let the water run before drinking it or using it for cooking. Especially the first thing in the morning, or any time water has been standing in the pipes, turn on the faucet and let it run for one minute or until the water feels much colder on your hand before using it. That way lead in the water from the solder can be flushed out. Fill a pitcher with clean water to use during the day.
If your plumbing is old, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advise boiling cold water to make baby formula instead of using hot water from the tap. Boiling hot water that is contaminated with lead makes the amount of lead in the water greater because it is more concentrated as the water evaporates. You cannot get rid of lead by boiling.
You can call the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426- 4791, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday (EPA Ground Water and Drinking Water). The federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides information on this hotline. You can also request a copy of the EPA’s book, “Lead and Your Drinking Water,” and fact sheets about lead. There is no charge for the call or the information.
There are many different types of water filter systems, which range in price from $25 to more than $100. They can be pitchers or containers, attach to your faucet, or go under your sink. If you decide to purchase one of these, be sure that the product information states that it will filter lead out of the water.
You may want to test your drinking water with a do-it-yourself kit. You can also send a water sample to a laboratory for testing. A nonprofit organization, Clean Water Lead Testing in Asheville, North Carolina, was rated highly by Consumer Reports several years ago as providing the quickest and least expensive reliable analysis. Their test kit costs $24. You can order it by calling (828) 251-6800. For a list of certified laboratories in New Jersey to test your drinking water for lead, call the Office of Quality Assurance in the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection at (609) 292-3950.
You can also call your water company or local public health authority if you think there is lead in your pipes. Ask them to come and test the plumbing. If there is too much lead in your water, the health department can order your landlord to correct the problem.
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What about colored newsprint, food cans and wrappers, cosmetics, dishes, and home remedies?
Keep things that have lead in them away from your children. Have children wash their hands after they have touched comics or comic books (colored newsprint). Children should always wash their hands before eating food.
After you open a food can, take the food out of the can right away. If there is food left over, store it in another container. When food sits in a can with lead solder, the lead can soak into the food. When you eat the food, you eat lead. You cannot tell if food has lead in it by tasting or looking at it.
Do not reuse printed food wrappers. The colored ink may contain dangerous levels of lead. Wipe off the tops of wine bottles before pouring from them; some wine bottle caps are made of lead.
Buy only those cosmetics that list the ingredients, and make sure none of the ingredients is lead. The federal government does not require cosmetics manufacturers to list ingredients, so you may have to look for products that do list them. Do not use foreign eyeliner or face paint or let your children use it.
Test any foreign or old American ceramic dishes for lead. See How do I know if things in my home contain lead? for information about two lead testing kits. Hardware and home improvement stores may also carry some testing kits.
Make sure you know exactly what is in a home remedy before taking it. Sometimes lead is called other names. Taking lead, even a little bit, is always harmful. It can never make you better.
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I’m thinking about doing renovations in my apartment. How can I do them safely?
Renovating an older house or apartment can be dangerous if it’s not done right. Any time you disturb old lead paint, you create lead dust. Scraping or sanding old lead paint creates a lot of dangerous lead dust. There are sandpapers that you can buy and use wet. Wet sanding helps keep down the amount of lead dust that can end up on surfaces and the floor where small children might touch it. You need to take precautions so that you do not poison yourself or your family.
If the paint in your apartment is not peeling, flaking, or loose, and you want to repaint, it may be better to paint over it, or cover it with paneling or drywall, than to try to remove the lead paint first. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency puts out a pamphlet called “Lead in Your Home: A Parent’s Reference Guide” that tells you how to do renovations safely. You can get a copy by calling the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD.
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How do I know if things in my home contain lead?
You can test your plates and cups, paint, water, and other things in your home for lead by buying a home lead-testing kit. The kits tell if the thing you test contains lead, but they do not tell you how much lead. Also, the kits may not be able to detect low levels of lead, so some dishes that test negative (as not having lead) might not be completely safe.
Two sample kits we have heard of are listed below.
LeadCheck Swabs
Available from HybriVet Systems, Inc.
P.O. Box 1210
Framingham, MA 01701
1-800-262-LEAD
Cost: Eight swabs for $18.45 plus $2.50 for shipping and handling; 16 swabs for $34.95 plus $2.50 for shipping and handling. Four LeadCheck Swabs are available at home improvement stores for about $7. According to the manufacturer, LeadCheck Swabs can detect lead in ceramics at current government limits. They also detect lead in paints, metals, dust, solder, and soil.
Lead Inspector Lead Test Kit
P. O. Box 610421
Port Huron, MI 48061-0421
1-800-268-LEAD (5323)
Cost: Eight tests for $12.99; 24 tests for $29.99. Shipping and handling charges are $4.99 for each test kit. The Lead Inspector Lead Test Kit was recommended in Today’s Parent magazine for its reliability.
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Can I get someone else to test my home for lead paint?
You can hire a lead evaluation contractor that has been certified by the state. New Jersey requires that anyone who does inspections for lead paint has to be trained, pass a test and obtain a permit from the Department of Health and Senior Services, and then be certified by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA). A certified inspector will be able to show you his or her permit, which looks like a photo ID. For a fee, a certified lead inspector can test the paint, dust, and soil in your home and yard to find out if they contain dangerous amounts of lead. For more information and a list of certified lead evaluation contractors (and certified lead abatement contractors), call the Department of Community Affairs at (609) 633-6224 or go to the DCA Lead Hazard Abatement Program Web site.
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What do I do if there is a lot of peeling paint in my apartment or my apartment tests positive for lead?
Lead-based paint is not a hazard if it is intact. But if there is serious water damage to lead-based paint or the paint is peeling or flaking, report it to your landlord right away. The law requires the landlord to respond to your concern within 30 days.
If you are pregnant or you have a child under six years old living in your apartment, the landlord must correct the problem within one week.
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