The Facts of Lead-Based Paint

The Facts about Lead-Based Paint really are:

• Lead-based paint (LBP) was banned from consumers only in 1977 by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Houses and buildings built before 1978 therefore could be contaminated with lead-based paint.
• More than 3 million children younger than 6 years of age have elevated blood-lead levels (Report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Jan. 1990).
• Lead-poisoning has been shown to cause irreversible brain damage, impaired mental functioning, learning disabilities, and physical retardation in children.
• A child does not have to eat paint chips to get lead poisoned. If paint is leaded, simply opening and closing doors and windows generates a dust that settles throughout the entire house. This dangerous leaded dust then enters the body by inhalation or typical hand-to mouth activities.
• Adults suffering from lead-poisoning experience irritability, nerve and sensory organ damage, high-blood pressure, and reproductive problems.
• New (non-leaded) paint cannot safely cover older lead-based paint. Paint deterioration and normal wear will re-expose a family to dangerous levels of lead toxicity.

Come see our other Web pages, ranging on topics of:

• What is Lead-Based Paint?
• What are the MYTHS of Lead-Based Paint?
• What are the critical issues of Lead-Based Paint?
• What are the health effects of Lead to children and adults?
• What is Title X and how will it affect me?
• How to contact AES

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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.