Lead Exposure and Poisoning Prevention Alliance

What do we want

There are many things that could be done to reduce the prevalence of lead exposure in the UK. Many would not be expensive. Here are some examples:

Key Initiatives

  • Home surveys to include lead exposure risk assessments before sale or rent
  • Place leaflets in professional and DIY outlets that sell paints and abrasives
  • GPs to be educated on conditions related to lead exposure and encouraged to provide blood tests
  • Targeted screening for children at higher risk
  • Public information campaign warning about the hazards of lead exposure
  • “William’s Law” – no child with pica should live in a home with lead hazards

Trade Bodies

  • Home surveys to including warnings, or tests, together with informative leaflets about lead in paint, pipes, dust and soil
  • Establish a ‘lead safe’ training and accreditation scheme for decorators and builders together with accreditation of trainers
  • The British Coatings Federation to recommend that paint containers have better warnings explaining what precautions to take and where to find more information, e.g.“PaintSafe”.

Retailers

  • Builders’ merchants and DIY stores to stock lead paint and water testing kits
  • Antique shops to provide warnings on furniture, ceramics, doors, toys, etc.
  • Provide free paint stirrers with warnings, such as:

Manufacturers

  • All vacuum cleaners to have HEPA filters
  • Abrasives to have warnings on papers and packaging
  • Power sanders to have warnings on packaging
  • Paint stripper to warn that lead could be left exposed
  • Develop light aircraft engines that run on unleaded fuel
  • Develop semi-quantitative red-amber-green dust tests
  • Develop lead-free alternatives to lead lines on windows and doors

Services

  • Develop a list of service providers including paint, dust, soil, water and blood testing together with cleaning and consultancy services
  • Maintain a list of accredited lead-safe decorators and renovators
  • Maintain a list of accredited laboratories like the NLLAP in the USA
  • Door dippers to provide warnings to customers and employees
  • Double glazing installers to provide warnings where lead decoration is applied, especially if accessible to children

Health Policy

  • GPs to be taught about the dangers of lead exposure and to recognise BLCs lower than the “normal range” as a health risk
  • UKHSA to conduct monitoring and research into UK blood lead levels
  • Screen pregnant and pre-conceptual women for elevated blood lead concentrations.
  • Introduce screening of children for elevated blood lead levels particularly those living in older homes or urban areas.

Governmental

Advisory

  • Establish a dedicated online lead poisoning prevention information service
  • Provide public information leaflets in GP surgeries and elsewhere
  • Setup a lead information hotline as they have in the USA
  • Improve DEFRA advice on DIY and fix the broken link on the website

Regulatory and Legislative

Homes and Buildings

  • Require pre-rent and pre-sale lead clearance tests or inspections
  • Test schools, playgrounds and children’s activity centres for lead in paint, dust, soil and water
  • Extend Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) to adults
  • Change the lead entry in the HHSRS to include inhalation and amend the likelihood of harm to reflect the prevalence of homes with lead paint and lead pipes. Change the spread of harms to 100% class 2.
  • Match, or exceed, the EU aim to limit drinking water to 5 μg/l Pb by 2036
  • Screen residential soil for elevated lead levels near aviation sites, shooting grounds, lead industry, and old housing stock

Lead-Safe Work

  • Implement equivalent of the US ‘Renovation, Repair and Painting’ standard
  • Require contractors to have lead-safe training accreditation
  • Enforce the CLAW regulation on using alternatives to lead
  • Lower CLAW suspension, action and surveillance levels
  • Lead metal should be installed out of reach in normal use
  • Define and enforce post-work lead contaminated dust clearance standards
  • Define and enforce procedures for safe disposal of lead contaminated waste

Products

  • Apply approved warning messages on relevant products
  • Lead-contaminated plastics should not be recycled into new products
  • Brass used in plumbing fixtures for drinking water should have no more than 0.25% lead as per NSF/ANSI 372
  • Update the regulations on maximum levels of lead in food to match the 2021 EU regulations
  • Ban leaded fuel in light aircraft and racing cars
  • Ban import of lead based PCV stabilisers
  • Ban the sale of leaded enamels for jewellery
  • Phase out lead shot, bullets and propellant in recreational shooting
  • Other lead compounds, in addition to lead carbons and lead sulphates should be banned from most paint so that lead, as a component or contaminant, does not exceed the UNEP level of 90ppm

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