by Mumtaz Piracha

Created on: June 15, 2008

Earlier than 1970's, the household paint, water-based emulsion paint or oil-based enamel paint, often contained lead. Lead paint tends to chip off or crumble into dust as it becomes older. Human exposure to lead paint dust or chips can be hazardous especially for the children and pregnant women. As an occupant or owner of an older home, you need to know how to protect yourself and others living with you.

Before you embark upon the task of removing lead paint yourself, you need to find out whether lead paint removal is being monitored by a government agency and whether you require permission from the agency to carry on the work yourself. Special regulations or conditions may be applicable to the removal of lead paint by the tenant or owner of a house.

You need to adopt a method which can serve the purpose and, at the same time, produce as little lead dust as possible while you are removing lead paint.

When lead paint on walls and ceilings is intact, it will suffice to repaint them or cover them with wallpaper. Its removal or covering becomes imperative only when the lead paint is chipping or peeling, or covering a surface such as a windowsill or stair rail which is accessible to children to chew on it.

During the work, you are likely to stir up dust or create lead fumes considered very dangerous for adults, children and pets. So, health safety is your first priority.

Children and pregnant women must stay out of the work area where the lead paint is being removed until clean-up is complete.

Work should be done in one room at a time and the work area should be sealed off from the rest of the house.

Before you start the work, the bedding, carpets, rugs, furniture, flooring, food, drapes, dishware, toys, etc. must be removed, or covered with two sheets of heavy 6-mil plastic and all the seams must be sealed with tape. Plastic, used to cover the floor, should be secured to the wall.

Workers should wear disposable coveralls, hair covering, goggles, shoes, gloves and a respirator approved by NIOSH or MSHA. Simple paper or fabric dust masks cannot protect a worker from exposure to lead dust.

Workers should not drink, drink or smoke while doing the job to avoid ingesting lead.
Before leaving the work area after doing their job, the workers need to dispose of their coveralls and remove the dust from their clothes with a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtered vacuum cleaner. They should shower as soon as possible to avoid spreading lead dust around their homes.

There are many ways and means to remove lead paint. You can remove by way of wire brushing or wet hand scraping with a non-flammable solvent or abrasive compound. You can use liquid paint removers on small areas, such as doors, windowsills and woodwork.

Wet hand sanding and/or power sanding should be done with HEPA filters. Dry hand sanding must not be done.

Heat stripping by using a low temperature, below 1100 degrees F, heat gun and followed by hand scraping can be employed. Only experienced workers wearing respirators should use
heat guns as these pose a fire hazard and also make lead dust and vapors.

Wet-misting or vacuuming should be used while removing lead paint from the exterior of the house to control lead dust and paint chips. The ground should be protected with heavy 6-mil plastic sheets. The outer edges of the sheets should be raised to trap debris, dust and liquid wastes.

Lead removal generates lead dust and debris and, therefore, the house should be properly cleaned after the work is completed.

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