Lead Paint Poisoning - How Many Sources Can You Name?

Lead paint can be dangerous. Now learn some new sources to avoid poisoning:

You can bring lead home in the dust on your hands or clothes if lead is used in the place where you work. Lead dust is likely to be found in places where lead is mined or smelted, where car batteries are made or recycled, where electric cable sheathing is made, where fine crystal glass is made, or where certain types of ceramic pottery are made.

Pets can also bring lead into the home in dust or dirt on their fur or feet if they spend time in places that have high levels of lead in the soil. Lead may be taken up in edible plants from the soil by the roots; therefore, home gardening may also contribute to exposure if the produce is grown in soils that have high lead concentrations.

Certain hobbies and home or car repair activities like radiator repair can add lead to the home as well. These include soldering glass or metal, making bullets or slugs, or glazing pottery. Some non-Western "folk remedies" contain lead. Examples of these include greta and azarcon used to treat diarrhea. Some types of paints and pigments that are used as facial make-up or hair coloring contain lead. Cosmetics that contain lead include surma and kohl, which are popular in certain Asian countries.

Read the labels on hair coloring products, and keep hair dyes that contain lead acetate away from children. Do not allow children to touch hair that has been colored with lead-containing dyes or any surfaces that have come into contact with these dyes because lead compounds can rub off onto their hands and be transferred to their mouths.

Swallowing of lead in house dust or soil is a very important exposure pathway for children. This problem can be reduced in many ways. Regular hand and face washing to remove lead dusts and soil, especially before meals, can lower the possibility that lead on the skin is accidentally swallowed while eating.

Families can lower exposures to lead by regularly cleaning the home of dust and tracked in soil. Door mats can help lower the amount of soil that is tracked into the home; removing your shoes before will also help. Planting grass and shrubs over bare soil areas in the yard can lower contact that children and pets may have with soil and the tracking of soil into the home. Families whose members are exposed to lead dusts at work can keep these dusts out of reach of children by showering and changing clothes before leaving work, and bagging their work clothes before they are brought into the home for cleaning. Proper ventilation and cleaning-during and after hobby activities, home or auto repair activities, and hair coloring with products that contain lead-will decrease the possibility of exposure.

It is important that children have proper nutrition and eat a balanced diet of foods that supply adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, especially calcium and iron. Good nutrition lowers the amount of swallowed lead that passes to the bloodstream and also may lower some of the toxic effects of lead.

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