Does your child live in or regularly visit a house or day care center built before 1950?
Does your child live in or regularly visit a house or child care facility built before 1978 with peeling or chipping paint or recent (within the last 6 months), ongoing or planned renovation?
Does your child have a sibling, housemate or playmate with lead poisoning?
Does your child live with an adult whose job or hobby involves exposure to lead?
Does your child live near an active lead smelter, battery recycling plant, or other industry likely to release lead?
Is your child a recent immigrant or adopted from outside of the U.S.?
Tips for Prevention
If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, have your children under age six tested for lead, even if they seem healthy.
Wash children's hands before eating, bedtime, naptime and after playing.
Wash children's bottles, pacifiers, and favorite toys at least daily.
Make sure children eat a nutritious, well-balanced diet.
Have your home checked for lead hazards.
Clean floors, window sills, and other surfaces at least weekly, using wet cleaning methods.
Remove shoes before entering house and keep mats outside of all doors.
Repair surfaces with peeling or chipping paint.
When renovating, repairing, or painting a house built before 1978, use a lead trained and licensed worker. Check their license and make sure your contract includes lead-safe work practices and clean-up.
Don't use a belt-sander, propane torch, dry scraper, or dry sandpaper on painted surfaces that may contain lead.
Wet Cleaning Methods
Materials:
Plastic gloves
Spray bottle
Industrial strength trash bags
Cleaning solution
2 Buckets
Disposable lint-free rags and sponges
Mop with Disposable head
HEPA (High Efficiency Particle Air) vacuum cleaner or a regular vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter
Preparation:
Put on protective cleaning gloves.
Use HEPA vacuum on all surfaces in the work area including: woodwork, walls, windows, window wells, and floors.
Fill bucket with hot water and add cleaning solution.
Fill another bucket with water for rinsing purpose.
Fill spray bottle with water.
Procedure:
To help control the dust, spray surface with a fine mist of water from the ceiling to the floor and "wet down" all dust and debris.
Wipe down walls and along windowsills with sponge.
Use rags to wipe fixtures and in corners of window wells.
Use mop for floors and along baseboards.
Always wear gloves while cleaning.
Rinse sponges, mop, and rags often.
Change rinse water every time you start to clean a new room or different window.
After cleaning is complete, allow all lead dust reduction cleaning items to dry: sponges, rags, and mop heads.
Disposal:
Industrial strength trash bags should be used to dispose of all disposable lead dust reduction cleaning items.
All debris collected in this procedure should be placed in the trash bag.
The trash bag should be wrapped tightly shut with duct tape.
Water in both buckets should be disposed of, by flushing it down the toilet. Never pour cleaning solution in the tub or sink.
After surfaces are dry, use HEPA vacuum a second time to insure all dust and residue are gone.
Reminders:
Do not use any of these materials for regular household cleaning: washing dishes, spot mopping, etc.
Keep all items and products out of the reach of children!
This cleaning process should be performed once a week.
