Lead paint is a paint that contains lead. Normally, lead is added to paint in order to make drying faster, increase durability, resist moisture, and make the fresh appearance long lasting.

Lead is quite dangerous even though it improves the paint performance. Lead is a poisonous substance that affects people of all age groups; and one major source of lead-poisoning is lead paint. Mental dysfunction and irreversible brain damage may be caused by lead-poisoning. It also affects the growth of a fetus with a minute level of exposure. Common problems such as increase of blood pressure, irritability, reproduction malfunction, and improper muscle co-ordination may be caused by lead-poisoning in adults. It's easy to verify, through some testing methods, whether lead is present in your paint or if there is any health hazard in your house arising out of lead paint. During unsafe repainting and renovation work of households, people might get poisoned through lead-based paint.

For preventing lead-poisoning, first and foremost thing to do is to determine if the house or the household contains any lead-based items. Suspected surfaces and dishware must be examined. For lead testing, 3 approaches are mainly used: lead paint inspection, risk assessment and lead hazard screen.

Many home test kits are available nowadays in market, which come along with a do-it-yourself guide. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission of the United States has not yet approved and evaluated any of these products. Using the test kits, presence of lead can be detected in water, soil, glasses, paint, dust, dishware, walls, windows, ceramics, ceilings, and floors. The do-it-yourself home test kits are not only user-friendly but also efficient enough to accurately provide any lead-contamination information. The professional home test kits contain some non-poisonous chemically processed strips of paper. Presence of lead up to as little as 5 ppm on a surface can be easily detected by activating the paper strips with a little water. Upon activation, if it detects any problem, then the test paper strips which were originally white immediately become bright red.

If you detect the presence of lead in your paint, then it could be dangerous for you to remove the paint yourself. It is advised to consult the local health department first and find out a lead-paint-removing expert. Many experts having specialized training for covering, replacing and removing lead-paint are available. The state medical department and the government release notices and organize public awareness campaigns about removing lead paint from time to time.

If you want to test for lead, visit us as we help you out:
Testing lead paint
Home lead test kits