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Living with Lead
If you think that you are being, or have been, exposed to lead you may wonder what you can do. This page makes some suggestions based on experience, but what you do is up to you.
Firstly, remember it is not your fault. You have not been given the information you needed in a way that you could use. In the human world lead exposure is inevitable, but often the health effects are so slight or rare that they can be accepted. What we need to do is deal with the worst, first.
1. Test, test, test
You need to know how much exposure there is or could be. For this you need to test. Our suppliers page lists places where you can obtain tests.
1.1 Blood
A blood test will tell you if there is exposure from any source but is only meaningful for recent exposure. The half-life of lead in blood is about 30 days. You may be able to get blood test from your GP, but many are not aware of the prevalence of lead in UK homes. Private tests are available, but expensive. If possible, it may be most effective to have a blood test for the youngest member of your household.
If you do get a blood test the results may be in µmol/L or µg/dL (micrograms of lead in each decilitre of blood). To convert µmol/L to µg/dL multiply by 20.7 or use this conversion tool from Endmemo. As of July 2021, the UK Health Security Agency action level for lead in blood is > 5 µg/dL for children under 16 and pregnant women, and > 10 µg/dL for everyone else (Public Health England, 2021). However, while there is no defined UK threshold for the harmful effects of lead in children, a blood lead concentration (BLC) of ≥0.1 μmol/L (≥2 μg/dL) to <0.24 μmol/L (<5 μg/dL) is now widely accepted as the clinical threshold above which investigation should occur and a source should be threshold identified.
If you have an elevated blood lead concentration, then the next step is to find the source. If the BLC is above 5 μg/dL the local Health Protection Team may be involved.
1.2 Dust
Household dust is one of the more likely sources of lead exposure especially for small children who play on the floor and put things in their mouths. Dust can be collected with a specific kind of wipe and analysed in a laboratory. See our suppliers page for lists of companies who do this.
Another approach is the 360 Dust Analysis project run in the UK by Northumbria University. This involves sending in the contents of your vacuum cleaner. You will receive an analysis of the lead content, plus other metals, in parts per million.
1.3 Paint
Testing for lead in paint is most useful when thinking about doing some renovation work. You could send paint chips to a lab for analysis which would give the most accurate results. A DIY method is to use a 3M LeadCheck swab. This will show whether there is lead in paint down to 5000 ppm or even 600 ppm in the best conditions. However, the World Health Organisation aim for lead in paint is 90 ppm
3M LeadCheck swab should cost around £4 to £5 each. A way to make them go further is to drip the activated reagent onto a clean cotton bud and then test the surface with that. This can get around 6 tests from one swab, but is of course, not approved by the manufacturer or EPA. Rub the last cotton bud onto the test card to prove the test is working.
1.4 Water
If you have lead pipes, or lead-soldered copper pipes, feeding your drinking water you can test the water. The UK standard is 10 ug/L or 10 ppb (parts per billion) – Drinking Water Inspectorate 2002. Your water company should do tests when requested or you can do a DIY test. However, some of these are made for the American market where the standard is 15 ppb.
1.5 Soil
If you have children playing in your soil or you grow vegetables, especially near an old house or road then this can be a source of lead. On solution to ensure that footwear is removed when coming indoors and hands are washed before eating. The soil can also be tested for lead content. Our legislation page shows the screening concentrations for lead in soil.
2. Get Help
2.1 UK Health Protection Teams
To get help in identifying sources of lead in your home it should be possible to call the local Health Protection Team (HPT), but it is not known how well this works. Your local HPT can be found at this link.
2.2 Chelation Therapy
These are standard paragraphs from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) regarding chelation therapy.
It is reasonable to offer chelation therapy to children who are symptomatic or have a BLC >2.4 μmol/L (>50 μg/dL), although there is reliable evidence that chelation therapy does not improve cognitive function in children ≤3 years old with BLCs of ≤2.2 μmol/L (≤45 μg/dL). Chelation is futile however if re-exposure occurs following treatment.
Where chelation therapy is indicated, two drugs are available; oral DMSA (succimer) 30mg/kg/day (DMSA is not licensed in the UK) or sodium calcium edetate 40mg/kg twice daily (or 75mg/kg/daily) by IV infusion for 5 days. Expert advice should be sought from NPIS consultant clinical toxicologist before instituting of either agent.
Further comments from the UKHSA include:
However, often iron and calcium mineral supplements help in decreasing the pica. Clinicians are advised to access the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) computerised database, TOXBASE® which is available free of charge at www.toxbase.org to registered NHS users and contains detailed monographs on the diagnosis and management of lead poisoning. The NPIS 24-hour telephone helpline (Tel: 0344 892 0111) is available to health professionals for discussion of more complex cases. Where appropriate, senior medical staff can discuss their cases directly with an NPIS consultant clinical toxicologist. Non medics/public, need to ring NHS 111.
Chelation can reduce lead in blood, but any stored in tissue and bone will not decrease using chelation, but will gradually appear in the blood as bone is remodelled/growth spurts/changes in weight/etc occur. So chelation will bring down an acute dose, but is less useful for long term historic doses. Occasionally several sessions of chelation are used. There are no other detoxification therapies, although as noted above iron supplements often reduce pica and thus reduce the intake of lead.
The clinician should let the HPT know if the BLC is above or equal to 5µg/dL (0.24µmol/L) as they can help the clinician to identify the source and reduce it; at this concentration there is definitely a single concentrated source of lead. The HPT can also involve other parties such as Local Authority environmental or public health to identify the source and hopefully mitigate it.
2. Prevent
Lead that is kept away from the body is fine. The key to prevention is to keep it where it is which mostly means not disturbing paint, pipes, and soil, but also avoiding other items that might release lead.
2.1 Paint
There is plenty of advice on how to prevent lead exposure from old paint.
DEFRA – Advice on lead paint in older homes
“We know that too much lead in our bodies isn’t healthy. Over the last 30 years or so, a lot has been done to get rid of lead in this country, find out the risks and how to do it safely in your home”.
British Coatings Federation / Painters and Decorators Association – PaintSafe
“The PaintSafe initiative aims to promote the safe use of paint and related products and provide best practice for decorators and other applicators during preparation, application and drying”.
“Planning to buy or rent a home built before 1970s? The ‘Protect Your Family’ pamphlet explains the dangers of lead in your home and how to protect your family from lead-based paint hazards”.
Australian Government – Lead Alert
“The six step guide to painting your home – 5th Edition, provides basic information for do-it-yourself renovators on the risks associated with paint containing lead and on practical steps to keep those risks as low as possible”.
New South Wales EPA – A renovator’s guide to the dangers of lead paint
Another Australian Government website designed to provide the general public with guidance on best practice and safe working methods.
2.2 Pipes
Most water companies dose drinking water with orthophosphate which prevents lead leaching from pipes. It is reported that this reduced the amount of lead in water by 90%, but can fail if pipes are disturbed or if the water becomes more corrosive. This is explained in the article from Hydroviv.
Exposure to lead has also occurred when new copper pipes are installed using lead solder. The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 prohibits the use of lead solder for joining copper pipes in plumbing systems which are used to supply water for cooking, drinking and bathing. However, incidents of the use of lead solder still occur. Here is an example. What you can do is to check your plumber is not using lead solder on drinking water pipes..
Another issue with lead in drinking water is brass fittings. These can contain lead to make them easier to machine. This is discussed in this Drinking Water Inspectorate report. Phosphate dosing is effective and considerably reduces the leaching of lead from brass fittings. and Brass fittings they can cause failures for lead after initially being installed but leaching of these metals diminishes dramatically by 30 days in service. If possible, chose lead-free taps and fittings for any new installations.
More information about lead in your water can be found in this article from the Drinking Water Inspectorate. However, if you use the recommended method for checking for lead pipes that the tool used, and any fragments of lead, are fully cleaned. Wet wipes could be good for this.
2.3 Soil
This Public Health England document explains about good hygiene with contaminated soil.
The EPA have produced a guide to lead in soil and preventing exposure. The key points are:
• Cover contaminated soil with a thick layer of clean soil, vegetation, mulch or other materials.
• Limit access to more contaminated areas.
• Keep soil outdoors by using doormats, taking off shoes, and other lead-safe cleaning practices.
• Reduce exposure from pets that go outside by maintaining proper pet hygiene.
• Wash produce well, peel root crops, and discard outer leaves of leafy vegetables. Consider growing
ornamental plants instead of food crops.
• Wear gloves or wash hands and other exposed skin areas after coming into contact with soil.
• Wash clothes after coming in contact with soil/dust separately from other clothes.
• Prevent children from playing in bare soil and watch children carefully to prevent them from eating soil.
• Wash toys and pacifiers frequently.
• Avoid growing produce directly adjacent to buildings, where lead levels are likely highest.
• Build raised beds with clean soil to grow food crops in more contaminated areas.
• Hire lead abatement contractors to remove or permanently cover the soil.
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