Lead Poisoning/Healthy Homes

The Lead Poisoning Prevention/Healthy Homes Branch investigates noise and odor complaints as well as preventing lead poisoning in children, using education, investigation and medical assistance.

• Lead poisoning prevention - established as a separate group in 1993 to help reduce the incidence of childhood lead poisoning in the County as well as the entire metropolitan area.

• Healthy Homes and Community Noise Control - overseeing health in the workplace, emergencies and hazardous materials management - including enforcement of noise pollution laws.

This page contains a LOT of information - and it's not finished yet. You can read it straight through, like a book - or use the navigation bar above or Frequently Asked Questions list below to find just the information you need.

Check the County's Lead Hazard Control Program, which provides grants to low- and moderate-income homeowners to control or abate hazardous conditions in their home caused by the presence of deteriorating lead-based paint.

• What is lead poisoning?
• Why is lead poisoning a problem in the Saint Louis area?
• Who is at risk?
• How can you tell if someone is lead poisoned?
• What do blood lead levels mean?
• Can lead poisoning be treated?
• How do you PREVENT lead poisoning?
• Are there any lead laws in the Saint Louis area?
• Where do you go to be tested?
• Lead in your drinking water?
• A Glossary - What do the words mean?
• Who can help and where to go?

Having lead in your body is not normal. Lead poisoning happens when someone in your family gets lead in their body. Every day you are surrounded by lead in places where you would never know to look.

• Your favorite coffee mug,
• Your child's bedroom walls or
• The dusty floor your baby crawls on -

- all may contain lead and be dangerous to you and your family.

Lead gets into your body when you eat or drink something that has lead in it. Even though you may not think that you are eating lead dust, when you touch it and don't wash your hands before eating, then you eat the lead too. Lead dust can be anywhere in your house and vacuuming won't make it go away.

Lead is most dangerous to pregnant women and children under the age of seven. Lead in a pregnant woman's body can get into the unborn baby - and small childrens' growing bodies can be easily harmed by lead.

When your baby crawls on the floor, tiny lead pieces can end up in your baby because babies put everything n their mouths. Maybe your baby found a pacifier lying under the couch, and when you looked carefully, you found dust on it. This dust could contain enough lead to poison your baby. Lead can also be extremely dangerous for remodelers.

Lead is a problem in the Saint Louis area because we have many old buildings with lead-painted surfaces. Most children get lead poisoning because they live in old houses that were painted with lead paint. When this paint gets old, is disturbed during remodeling and turns into dust or chips, it becomes dangerous.

Lead paint is found in most homes that were built before 1960 and in many homes that were built before 1978. This dangerous paint may have been used indoors and outdoors. The greater Saint Louis area has many old homes that were built before 1978. If you live in any of these homes, you and your family may be at risk from the lead dust and chips. Even if you live in a newer home, lead may be found in the soil outdoors where your children play, or in other buildings where your children stay and visit.

Other places where your child might find lead are in painted toys, old furniture, drinking water, imported canned food, crayons and pottery, leaded crystal, folk remedies (greta, azarcon used to treat upset stomachs). Other sources of lead are hobbies that use lead such as making pottery, soldering stained glass, refinishing furniture and making bullets or lead sinkers for fishing.

Any one at any age can be poisoned by lead. It doesn't matter where you live. If you're rich or poor, young or old, or any color under the rainbow, you can get lead poisoned.

Small children are the most easily poisoned because very small amounts of lead can poison them.

Children are still growing and their bodies keep more lead in them than adults. This lead harms children's brain development and growth. Children spend most of their time close to the floor and put everything in their mouths. A few tiny grains of lead can be enough to poison a child.

In children, lead can slow growth, harm their developing brain, damage the kidneys and liver, and decrease hearing. Children may have no symptoms at all, or they may complain of a stomach ache, have behavior problems, or be "unable to sit still". Adults may complain of a stomach ache, feeling tired, having a hard time sleeping and thinking, or have muscle or joint pains. Signs of lead poisoning may not become noticeable until the level is very dangerous. The only way to know for sure is to have a blood lead test.

Having lead in your blood is not normal. Blood lead levels are measured in micrograms per deciliter ( µg/dl) of blood. If you have blood lead levels at or above 10 µg/dl, you need to be concerned and talk to your doctor or clinic.

Lead poisoning can be treated but prevention is best. If your levels are between 10 µg/dl and 14 µg/dl, you should be retested as your doctor/nurse advises. Between 15 ug/dl and 19 ug/dl, you should be retested as advised and you will be given steps to take to reduce the lead in your surroundings. If the level is above 20 ug/dl, a repeat test is done. You will receive a medical checkup and someone should come to your home to help you find the sources of lead. Medications to reduce the lead level may be started. Other family members may also need to be tested.

Lead poisoning isn't like a cold. A pill will not easily fix it. Once lead is in a body, it will stay there for a long time even with treatment. There may be permanent damage. In mild cases of lead poisoning, the "treatment" is finding the lead and making your home safe so that no more lead enters the body. If you can keep any more lead from getting into your body, then the amount of lead in the body will go down because some lead is slowly passed from the body every day through the urine and stool.

Eating foods that are rich in iron (meat, fish, eggs, beans and green vegetables) and calcium (milk and cheese) and avoiding fried foods, help to keep the body from absorbing more lead. In serious cases of lead poisoning a child or adult may need "chelation therapy". Medications are taken that attach to the lead in the body and help to get the lead out much faster through the urine. If the blood lead level is very high, you or your child may have to stay in the hospital for a while.

You prevent lead poisoning by knowing where the lead is and learning how to live with it safely. A lead-safe house may have many places with lead but not be dangerous because the lead has no way of getting from where it is into your body. While some people think that lead poisoning happens when children chew on paint chips that taste sweet, actually the dust from deteriorated lead paint is the main problem. You can help make your house lead-safe when you make sure that your house is clean and free from this dust. Wash your hands and your childrens' hands frequently, particularly before eating. To get a lead-safe house, you need to know the following:

• Any home built before 1978 may contain lead paint and dust. These homes in particular need to be well maintained and clean.

• To clean a house, wet-mop using a high-phosphate cleaner such as automatic dishwasher detergent powder (not liquid or gel) in hot water, or Trisodium Phosphate powder (TSP) available at any paint or hardware store.

• All rags and sponges that you use for cleaning leaded surfaces should be thrown away or kept in a special, labeled plastic bag for the same use. Keep a special bucket for wiping leaded surfaces.

• Toys and pacifiers that toddlers put in their mouths should be washed often. Use only soap and water.

• Check all painted surfaces frequently for cracking and flaking. Be especially careful about places where a child can chew such as old furniture and window sills.

• Paint rubbing against paint causes dust, for example on wood windows and doors. This dust falls down in the window well or on the floor near the door and gets into your body. These areas need to be cleaned frequently.

• Never vacuum lead dust or chips with your regular vacuum cleaner. Use a HEPA-Vac.

1. Fill two five-gallon buckets half full with warm tap water.

2. In one bucket, mix a half cup of TSP powder or one cup of automatic dishwasher detergent. You now have a wash bucket and a rinse bucket.

3. Always wearing gloves, wipe the leaded surface with a damp cloth, soaked only in your wash bucket.

4. Using another damp cloth, wipe the surface again, only using the clear water from the rinse bucked.

5. Keep each cloth in its own bucket.

6. When you are finished, flush both the wash and rinse mixtures down the toilet.

• The City, the County and the State have ordinances (laws) to protect children from being poisoned by lead. Homeowners and landlords are required by these ordinances to remove the lead or make the home lead-safe.

• If you or your child have high blood lead levels, the health department may send a lead inspector to your home to help you find the lead. When necessary, the health department will also test outside surfaces, soil, water and any other possible place where lead may be.

• Even if you have not had a blood lead test, you can call your health department and they may be able to send an inspector to a home where children under 7 years of age live or stay during the day.

• Licensed day care centers in Saint Louis County and City must be lead-safe. The kind of inspection required will depend on local laws and codes. If you want to make sure your child's day care center is lead-safe, ask the center if it has been inspected for lead.

• Real estate transactions in Saint Louis County require that a buyer be told about the possibility of lead paint in any home built before 1978.

• If you prefer, a private environmental/lead inspector can be hired by you to test for lead in your home. For a current list of State-certified inspectors, check the Lead Poisoning Help-List.