Lead remediation can be costly and federal HUD money to pay for this is running out in Cuyahoga County. But short of fully replacing all your windows, doors, and other contaminated surfaces, what should a family be doing if it has a lead problem? The first step is intense cleaning. Ideastream’s Tony Ganzer found out more from John Belt, a Field Services Section Chief at the Bureau of Environmental Health & Radiation Protection with the Ohio Department of Health.
BELT: “When you’re cleaning for lead dust, it’s microscopic and not detectable by the human eye. It mixes with other household dust. So when we say good cleaning, we mean intensive, wet cleaning of the horizontal surfaces in the home. Once I’ve accomplished that I’m going to look at my child’s diet. A child who’s deficient in iron and/or calcium, their GI tract is going to uptake lead more readily than a child who’s not vitamin deficient. And then I’m going to look for do I have actively chipping, peeling, deteriorated paint? Do I have moisture, do I have leaks that are causing the paint to deteriorate? If it goes beyond that it really becomes a structural issue where a professional need to come in.”
GANZER: “I saw a Cochrane Review of some of the scientific literature, especially looking at lead interventions—as you say dusting or wiping things down with wet rags and things—and it said that it’s really unclear that does a whole lot to reverse the risks to kids. Is it out of an abundance of caution that we do these things?”
BELT: “All the research, the science indicates that comprehensive cleaning for lead dust is effective in creating a lead-safe environment, but that very same scientific evidence shows that occupants don’t maintain that intense level of cleaning, and as that drops down the lead hazards return.”
GANZER: “So it’s about keeping up with it, really.”
BELT: “It is, and it’s intensive work. When we think about cleaning for lead we actually have a licensed discipline. It’s got to be comprehensive, and on-going. It’s not the catch-all solution.”
GANZER: “I did see on your website mentioned that you received a grant from the EPA to loan out HEPA vacuums, can you talk about that?”
BELT: “Well, we have and we still do receive funding from the Environmental Protection Agency for our Environmental Lead Program, and the Ohio Department of Health operates a HEPA loaner program. A true HEPA vacuum is not what you think about when you’re in Lowe’s or Home Depot and you see something advertised with a HEPA filter, or a HEPA-type vacuum. A true HEPA vacuum that’s used cleans down to three microns. It has an intensive seal structure that prevents any blow-by, so that as the lead dust is collected it’s not exhausted as part of the vacuum exhaust.”
GANZER: “If someone has done all of the dust cleaning, they’ve gotten a HEPA vacuum, but it still looks like, after your investigation, that this home it just has too much lead in it. What can they do? Is there help for abatement or are they just stuck?”
BELT: “There’s various sources of help, they’re all income-qualified. I think part of the problem we get into is that a home will have deferred maintenance, or other issues. There may be a hole in the roof, a lot of moisture damage, the foundation may have gotten to a state of disrepair that the home value is less than the value of making it lead-safe, and at that point decisions have to be made. We advocate that things are done locally, because the people closest to the problem really know the extent of the problem and can make those decisions.”