Hi,
I am just about to undertake painting a house built in 1993-1996.
I am not sure if I need to undertake extensive precaution (family has young children and babies) for lead paint. The government's definition for lead paint is 1% lead and above. A mate whose a medical told me in that time paint still contains 0.25% lead- although the govt says okay, in reality that is still hazardous. He did some maths for me- say if a child eats 1g of the supposedly "unleaded paint", he will still have consumed 2500microgram of lead, and the USA tolerable intake of lead is only 6microgram/day and even that was removed as they think it's too high and there is no safe level for lead intake. He doesn't think the limit of 0.1% (1000ppm) now is safe too, referring me to USA's standard of 0.009% allowable lead (90ppm). He thinks if I just hammer nails into the house or paint without using lead safe method, unhealthy levels of lead dust will contaminate my house and furniture and even a few micrograms of lead eaten or breathed into a day could drop children's IQ irreversibly.
On the flipside, I have friends who DIY all the time, even in older houses, and do not seem aware or concern of the higher lead content in their paint. Some of them have crazy kids and pets.
I guess my question to those who renovate houses built circa 1990s, do you use safe lead paint handling techniques to reduce lead dust from contaminating the house when you undertake paint jobs? We are just concern about the kids- too late for us now. At the same time I don't know if I need to just call the professionals in to do a lead abatement for a relatively newish house?
Thanks!
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