A Brief Background
With all the environmental issues facing the Northwest, lead (chemical symbol "Pb") and lead poisoning has taken an unfortunate back seat in the media and public mind. However, that does not make it any safer for us and our children. Lead poisoning is the number one preventable childhood disease and a leading adult disease. The good news is that lead-poisoning can be prevented.
Lead-based paint (LBP) by itself is not dangerous. However, exposure to LBP and its effects to humans are quite damaging. From birth to age 7, the brain of a child undergoes tremendous development and growth, and it is during this stage when children are most vulnerable to the effects of LBP poisoning.
This LBP poisoning problem is present in homes where the paint has begun to age, deteriorate, crack, chip, peel, or enter the household air as dust. Even if a home has been recently painted with a lead-free paint, there is a risk that deeper paint layers may contain LBP. It is then only a matter of time before the LBP, and its dangers, affect the occupants of a home. LBP and its dust will settle on floors, around walls, doors, windows, stairs, in closets, and even on your furniture--literally everywhere in your home. Frequent hand-to-mouth contact (including eating, crawling, thumb-sucking, etc.) puts younger children at a very high risk of ingesting this poison.
Any home built before 1978 stands the risk of containing lead in any of the painted surfaces. It was only in 1978 that the Consumer Products Safety Commission banned the sale and use of LBP for home construction and painting. Until that time, some home builders had good reasons to use LBP in home painting: It was the best, most durable, and longest-lasting paint around. Unfortunately it was also, by far, the most dangerous.
Recent estimates tell us that over three million tons of LBP are present in over 57 million private homes nationwide. Lead can be present in the paint of the walls, baseboards, doors, windows, siding, and virtually any component of a typical home. LBP looks just like ordinary paint. Just visually inspecting a paint surface cannot distinguish whether lead is present or not.
The Statistics of Lead-Based Paint (LBP)
After years of scientific studies on the poisonous effects of lead to the human body, a standard was adopted by the U.S. Government to define what is "safe" and "not-safe" levels of lead-based paint. For most states in the U.S. the "safe" LBP limit became 1.0 mg/cm2 (1 milligram of lead per square centimeter of painted surface). That means any painted surface with 1 milligram or more, per square centimeter, is considered a hazardous to human health--especially children.
So the authorities have determined that 1.0 mg/cm2 of lead in paint is all a person needs to be poisoned. To put this in perspective, one milligram of weight is equal to about 30 grains of salt! If one square meter (1 m2) of painted surface contained the lowest danger limit of 1.0 mg/cm2 of LBP, then 10,000 milligrams or 10 grams of lead is present in that painted 1 m2. Now think about how many square centimeters of surfaces are painted in a typical home--literally tens of millions!
Homes originally painted in the 1950's, 1960's, and as recent as the 1970's, have been tested and found with LBP levels nearly 10 times or more the 1.0 mg/cm2 limit. Homes painted before the 1950's have been tested and found with even higher LBP levels, often 30 mg/cm2 and more!
Government to the Rescue
Since 1986, the government awareness of the health-related problems and legal liability due to the inherent dangers of LBP has grown immensely. It was then the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) started a new program to test for and remove LBP from hundreds of thousands of low-income housing units nationwide. For the last several years, the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars for LBP testing and removal. Today, the process of dealing with the LBP problem in low-income housing is well under way.
Enter American Environmental Services
From the beginning, American Environmental Services (AES) has worked together with the U.S. Government to help shape and define the standards for LBP testing, procedures, and protocol. AES was the very first LBP testing firm in the United States to use the state-of-the-art Spectrum Analyzer test equipment for on-site LBP testing. In fact, the Spectrum Analyzer is the only LBP testing device that is recommended by HUD and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) for testing in single-family homes.
For over 7 years AES has successfully performed LBP testing, reporting, and evaluation to the highest quality for several thousand HUD residential units and private homes across the nation. AES is the recognized leader in experience, knowledge, and issues involving LBP. The principal AES personnel are comprised of a group of dedicated and informed professionals with many years of LBP experience, advanced scientific and graduate-level degrees, and recognized governmental and environmental certifications.
Home Owners, Home Buyers, and LBP
Since 1986, AES has been leading the way to provide the highest quality, most comprehensive, and accurate LBP testing and evaluation services available to the U.S. Government and private home owners and buyers. AES also recognizes that even greater numbers of private individuals and their families, both home owners and home buyers, will soon be following the standards and needing the services of LBP testing that we supply to the U.S. Government and private residential home owners today. In a world of growing environmental concerns, "health safety, family safety, and home safety" have become the popular buzzwords of today and for the future.
After all, the same brand of leaded-paint that has been used by HUD housing may be present in your own home right now, or maybe just waiting for you in your soon-to-be-purchased new home.
Smart people don't take risks or put their loved ones at risk. You as a home owner or buyer have the right to live in a safe home, or at very least, know what dangers exist in the home. Unfortunately, apathy and lack of concern by the media and general public have silenced this toxic issue surrounding LBP.
You and your family do not have to be ignorant about LBP and its dangers. Don't subject you and your family to the same LBP crisis that HUD housing is facing now. Whether you are living in a home and are not sure if you have LBP, or if you are looking to buy a home and are not sure if LBP is present, please consult AES for expert information and help.
AES is there to help private home owners and home buyers, and their families, with expert LBP testing, reporting, and evaluation needs. Our vast experience on the national level speaks for itself and it becomes your benefit for quality, certified, and knowledgeable LBP inspection for your own home needs. Every day, increasingly more private citizens, home buyers, and home owners are seeing that low-income housing are not the only homes afflicted with this hazardous LBP problem. This problem is right at home with them too.
Why American Environmental Services?
Simply put: AES has successfully been in this business from the very beginning when LBP first became a critical health issue. AES has the greatest knowledge of the current LBP issues, operates the best testing equipment available, and is the most established LBP testing company with an unmatched reputation of excellence in the business today. AES has been there from the start, is here today, and will be there tomorrow. Very few companies can truly make this statement. Certainly you would not give your money to some company that will take it today and vanish tomorrow. Unfortunately, far too many customers have been scandalized by "fly-by-night" LBP testing companies that are only in it for the money--nothing else and certainly not for you. Call AES, educate yourself, and understand the issues about LBP and why we are the best in the business.
Designed by American Environmental Services, Inc.
All contents Copyright © 1996, AES, Inc. All rights reserved.
All contents courtesy of American Environmental Services, Inc.
Used with permission.
Last updated: January 17, 1996.