Do you require lead paint testing ?

Breathing or ingesting lead dust or fumes can cause serious health problems like kidney, nerve and brain damage or infertility.

You can absorb lead into your body when you breathe in lead dust or fume. You can also swallow lead dust and debris for example if you eat, drink, smoke or bite your nails without washing your hands or face. Any lead you absorb will circulate in your blood. Your body gets rid of a small amount of lead each time you go to the toilet, but some will stay in your body, stored mainly in your bones. It can stay there for many years without making you ill.

If the level of lead in your body gets too high, it can cause symptoms such as headaches, tiredness, irritability, anaemia or stomach pains.

Continued uncontrolled exposure can cause more serious problems like kidney, nerve and brain damage, and even possibly cancer.

Where possible think about eliminating or reducing the amount of lead used or contact with it.

Consider:

• Using different materials
• Leaving in place paintwork that is in good condition and/or covered by non-leaded paint. Make a key for a new paint layer by using wet abrasive paper. Only strip back old paint if it is flaking, chipping, giving off dust/ particles or is a risk to children

Even if you minimise some of the risk this way, you may still do other work that might involve exposure to lead. Control the risk by:

Limit the amount of dust or fume you create. Consider using one or a combination of:

• chemical paint stripper
• wet abrasive paper and scraper
• on-tool extraction with an H or M class extraction unit
• infrared equipment or a hot air gun and scraper

• Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) – wear RPE with an assigned protection factor of 20 (eg FFP3 disposable mask or half mask with P3 filter). For longer duration work consider powered RPE with the same protection (eg TH2 powered hood/helmet). Make sure any RPE is compatible with other protective equipment. Fit testing is needed for tight-fitting masks.
• Preventing spread – use additional controls to prevent dust or fume spreading – eg plastic sheeting to separate the work and cover surfaces. Remove or protect soft furnishings. Thoroughly wash / clean surfaces and dispose of contaminated waste safely. Pay particular attention to keeping children and pregnant women away from the work area.
• Clothing – wear disposable coveralls and use washable (eg PVC) or disposable gloves if there is likely to be lead dust contamination. Remove these when leaving the work area. Do not wear them in rest areas and keep them away from personal clothing worn outside of work. Avoid washing contaminated clothing at home.
• Washing – washing is an important control. In many cases, standard site welfare facilities will be enough. Workers should ensure they:
  • wash hands and forearms before eating, drinking, smoking, using the telephone, taking medication etc
  • avoid hand-mouth contact when in contaminated areas
• Breaks– avoid contamination by taking rest and meal breaks away from the work area.