Lead Paint Blog

Marine paint removal is another place you could find lead based paint.  Many people use a belt-sander to remove paint off boats, but this is very dangerous and harmful to the environment if there is lead paint on that boat.  Many chemical strippers are not suitable for use on a boat and most are not suitable for use on lead paint. 

Lead-Out Paint Stripper is the ideal paint remover for stripping and painting your boat.  It is safe, because it is non-toxic and won’t cause chemical burns if it touches your skin.  It is effective, because it will strip multiple coats of paint over a coverage area of around 100 square feet.  Also, the gel paint stripper keeps all the paint encapsulated in the gel instead of creating a cloud of noxious fumes, and Lead-Out will render the lead paint non-hazardous.  It is easy to use, because you simply brush or spray it on and it will lift the paint off the surface so you only have to wipe it off when it is doen.  If you are thinking about removing paint from your boat, then consider Lead-Out Paint Stripper.

So the paint stripper that I bought is pretty amazing.  It has given me just a little bit more confidence to do this huge project by myself.  Every once in a while I have a couple of friends over.  Now that I have this huge project I’ve found that if you have enough beer, you can get your guy friends to come over and chat with you about construction work.

So they come over and I some extra help with my project.  It is moving along nicely.  I think that I made the right decision in putting the power of the project into my own hands.  That way I’ll know who to blame.

When I bought my house last May, they said that it was a fixer upper.  That’s why I got it such a premium price.  But I don’t think that I truly understood what a fixer upper really was until I tried to do some of the fixing myself.  That’s when I realized that I needed either a lot of time or a lot of help. 

I chose time so that I could get the project done on my own and truly feel like this was my house that I was stepping into: the House that Janet Built.  So I went to the store and the first thing I bought was paint removal tools so that I could take out the God awful pain that was marring the outside of the house.  Next maybe some plumbing?

Lead paint coats many steel surfaces such as bridges, pipes, silos, and fuel tanks.  When evaluating a paint removal method for steel structures several factors must be considered.  First, the effectiveness of the removal method in actually removing the lead paint.  Soda blasting or other abrasive blasting is a common method, but blasting requires a lot of equipment and it is difficult to contain the hazardous lead paint.  Using a chemical stripper uses much less equipment and makes containment easy while it is just as effective if not more effective in stripping the paint off steel surfaces. 

Containment is always an issue when removing lead paint.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires certain precautions are taken to reduce exposure to workers.  Containing the dust and debris generated by removing lead paint is essential to meeting OSHA requirements.  This makes any type of blasting inefficient, because workers will have to wear significant personal protective equipment (ppe) and setup physical barriers around the work site to prevent spreading the hazardous lead dust.  When a non-toxic, non-caustic chemical stripper is used, less ppe is required and the lead dust is automatically contained by the paint stripper itself.  This will ensure compliance with OSHA, and if the stripper renders the lead non-hazardous, it will be easy to comply with EPA and HAZMAT requirements as well.

Some paint strippers can corrode the steel or be harmful to the workers.  That is why only non-toxic, non-caustic paint strippers should be used to remove lead paint from steel structures. 

Finally, you want the most bang for your buck.  Many paint strippers cannot cover more than 25 square feet per gallon.  Compare paint stripper coverage area before you buy. 

Lead is an element (pb).  It is rare to find elemental lead, because lead molecules react with many other molecules.  Most naturally occurring lead is found as lead-sulfide, because this compound is stable and it takes a lot of energy to separate the lead from the sulfide compound.  Lead-Sulfide is also known as galena or lead-ore.  To harvest lead from ore (just like any other metal) takes a lot of energy.  The process of breaking lead-sulfide involves roasting, blasting, and filtering. 

Lead-Sulfide does not dissolve in water and does not leach into soil or living tissue.  Leaching is the process of chemicals separating out into constituent parts by percolating through something (like soil or a living body).  Considering the amount of energy needed to separate lead-sulfide into lead and sulfur compounds, it is not surprising that lead-sulfide will not naturally leach into the soil or human tissue.  Other lead compounds, which are not normally found in nature, are soluble and leachable; hence, they are more dangerous as the lead separates out of the compound to react with surrounding molcules.  This is how lead poisoning happens.

Compounds found in lead paint such as lead-chromate and lead-carbonate will leach into the body and cause lead poisoning.  These compounds are artificial and will break apart easily when they come into contact with other molecules that are reactive with lead.  Lead-Sulfide is not 100% safe, because it can be source of lead exposure; however, it is unlikely to cause lead poisoning as it is the least harmful form of lead.  Directly inhaling or ingesting lead-sulfide is harmful, but not as harmful as other forms of lead.

The Environmental Protection Agency uses a test called the TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure) to test for hazardous lead.  If the lead does not leach, then it is not an environmental threat and less harmful to human health than leachable lead.  This is the principle behind Solucorp’s Molecular Bonding System (MBS).

MBS reacts with lead and other heavy metals like chromium and cadmium to create lead-sulfide and other sulfide compounds.  This patented technology turns hazardous lead paint into non-hazardous compounds that can safely be disposed of in any landfill.  With Lead-Out® Paint Stripper we can turn all the hazardous lead paint into non-hazardous lead-sulfide.  We can put all the lead paint back into nature in its natural form.

When shopping for paint removal supplies you want to compare different products just like any other shopping.  The criteria you use should include safety, coverage area, price, and intended use.

To consider the safety of a paint stripper, you should look at pH, VOCs, toxicity, and causticity.  The pH of a substance can range from 1 (most acidic) to 10 (most basic).  High and low pH can cause chemical burns.  Look for a neutral pH of around 4-6.  VOCs are Volatile Organic Compounds and these compounds are hazardous to our health.  Look for a paint stripper with less than 1% VOC content.  Toxic substances have to be labelled as toxic with appropriate warnings.  Methylene Chloride is common toxic paint stripper and the fumes from it can harm your eyes and lungs.  Methlylene Chloride and other paint strippers are caustic, which means they will burn your skin if you touch it.  Chemical burns can be very painful.  Non-caustic paint strippers will say non-caustic on the package or in the product information.  All relevant safety information should be readily available on the package on a product information page.

Coverage area, price, and intended use should be considered together, because $25 for a gallon that covers 20 square feet is not as good a deal as $78 for a gallon that covers 120 square feet.  The same goes for a cheaper paint stripper that only removes oil based paint or latex paint, but not both. 

Lead-Out® Paint Stripper removes lead based paint, oil based paint, latex paint, milk paint, and others off wood, brick, masonry, steel, and other metals.  This industrial strength paint stripper covers 80-120 square feet per gallon.  It is non-toxic and non-caustic with a VOC content of less than 0.25%.  Also, it has a neutral pH as the main ingredient is American grown soy beans.  You should look for yourself and compare paint strippers before buying.

Houses built before 1978 likely contain lead based paint that can cause lead poisoning.  Paint companies sold lead paint until it was banned in 1978 due to the harmful health effects.  Exposure to lead from old lead paint can cause damage to internal organs and brain damage which lead to behavioral and emotional problems. 

High impact surfaces such as windows and doors produce the most lead dust as painted surfaces rub against each other every time you open and close them.  People in older homes must clean the dust and paint chips off the floor and window sills around high-impact surfaces.  Failure to keep these areas clean will expose your family to potential lead poisoning.  Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to pick d up dust and paint chips.  Regular vacuums do not have HEPA filters and will kick up the lead dust and spread it around

When remodelling, renovating, or making home improvements people must take precautions to not create hazardous lead dust.  The best way to accomplish this is to use a specialized paint stripper to remove the lead paint.  Lead-Out® Paint Stripper will trap all the lead dust in the gel and render the lead non-hazardous.  It is easy to use and takes the hard work out of paint removal.  Lead-Out® is non-toxic and contains safe ingredients so you don’t have to worry about hazardous fumes, and when you are done, lead poisoning will not be a worry either.

Sellers of homes, landlords and realtors are required to disclose the presence of known lead paint and lead hazards during the sale or rental of housing. Renovation and remodeling contractors are required to warn customers of the hazards of lead paint.

Effective March 1, 2000, lead paint abatement firms must be certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency, though many sources will tell you that due to safety, lead paint removal is necessary.

Lead paint poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the metal lead in the blood, usually found in traces of paint. Lead may cause irreversible neurological damage as well as renal disease, cardiovascular effects, and reproductive toxicity.

Humans have been mining and using this heavy metal for thousands of years, poisoning themselves in the process due to accumulation and exposure. These dangers have long been known, though the modern understanding of their full extent and the small amount of lead necessary to produce them is relatively recent; blood lead levels once considered safe are now considered hazardous, with no known threshold. Reducing these hazards requires both individual actions and public policy regulations.

Lead is a naturally occurring element found in nature in the form of ores; it is a heavy, soft, malleable bluish metal. The history of its use traces back many centuries. The oldest known lead object was a statue excavated in Turkey and dated somewhere around 6500 B.C. During the Roman Empire, lead was used extensively in many aspects of life; to line vessels that stored water and wine, in utensils, and, in combined form, as a glaze on pottery.
 
In more recent years lead was widely used to extend the protective properties of paints, helped automobiles attain better fuel efficiency, protected occupation ally exposed workers from harmful radiation and provided a suitably dense material for ammunition and fishing weights. Even though it is no longer used in many of these applications, millions of homes remain painted with lead paint.

It’s been estimated that approximately 94% of the residential housing in San Francisco was built prior to 1978 and probably has lead-based paint. Lead-based paint chips, as well as soil and household dust contaminated with lead are the primary sources of childhood lead poisoning. Lead paint removal tools are available from several sources, particularly online.