Up to 85% of homes built before 1979 contain unsafe levels of Lead. One in five children in the United States is at risk for lead poisoning.  It's effects can include brain damage, kidney disease, hart disease, stroke and death.  Lead paint, the primary source of lead poisoning, creates invisible lead dust and paint chips, which can cause permanent damage to the developing central nervous system if ingested or inhaled.  Children can get lead poisoning many ways, including chewing on window sills or other surfaces painted with lead paint, touching lead dust from window sills, floors, toys or contaminated soil, and then putting their hands into their mouths.  Pets that play in contaminated soil can also harm your children.  Lead can be found in paint and or plumbing lines.  Although lead drain pipes do not typically pose a health risk as they are installed behind drywall or in crawlspaces etc. however lead solder used in some copper water line installation can be absorbed into the drinking water.

Complete certification that your home is lead free should only come from qualified persons such as a Certified Industrial Hygienist etc.  This is beyond the scope and qualification level of most home inspection companies, can cost several hundred dollars, and is the only way to be certain that your home is lead free. 

However, if this level of testing is more than your situation calls for, a Limited Lead Screening may be appropriate.  Various samples of paint, solder, water, dust, etc. can be taken and sent to a laboratory for analysis of lead content.  Although this process can not guarantee that there is no lead in the home, it will frequently identify lead in the more common accessible areas such as drinking water, and exposed paint inside the home. 

Do-It-Yourself kits are not reliable!  Be careful with the do-it-yourself kits readily available at home improvement stores.  Improper testing methods can result in "false negatives," and the kits themselves can provide "false positives!"  Proper testing methods, a laboratory grade testing kit, and samples analysed by chemical analysis should be used to determine the presence of lead in your home.  These simple, in-expensive tests should be included in your home inspection to give you a good indication of the presence of lead 

 Call us today or click on the link below to get more information about protecting your family from the health risks associated with lead:

HUD Healthy Homes