What You Can Do To Protect Your Family

What you can do to protect your Love Ones

  • If you think that your home has lead hazards, you can take some steps right away to decrease your family’s risk:
    • If you are a renter, alert your landlord of chipping or peeling paint.
    • Clean up paint chips right away.
    • Wash floors, window frames, window sills, and other areas on a weekly basis. Use a sponge, mop, or paper towel with water and a general all-purpose cleaner or a cleaner made specifically for lead. REMEMBER: NEVER MIX BLEACH AND AMMONIA PRODUCTS TOGETHER SINCE THEY CAN FORM A DEADLY GAS.
    • Thoroughly rinse mop heads and sponges after cleaning dirty or dusty spots.
    • Wash the kid’s hands often, especially prior to eating and before their daily nap time and bed time.
    • Keep areas that children play in clean. Wash pacifiers, bottles, toys, regularly.
    • Keep children from chewing window sills or other painted surfaces.
    • Remove or clean shoes prior to entering your house to avoid tracking in lead from soil.
    • Make sure children consume healthy and nutritious meals as suggested by the National Dietary Guidelines. Children with good eating habits absorb less lead.
  • Additional steps:
    • You can temporarily reduce lead hazards by taking actions such as fixing damaged painted areas and planting grass to cover soil with higher lead levels. These actions are temporary solutions and will require ongoing upkeep.
    • To permanently eliminate lead hazards, you must hire a certified lead “abatement” professional. Abatement (or permanent hazard elimination) procedures include removing, sealing, or enclosing lead based paint with special materials. Just painting over the Lead Paint hazard with regular paint is not sufficient.
    • Always hire a person with specialized training for correcting lead problems – A company who knows how to do this work safely and has the required equipment to clean up thoroughly. Certified contractors will hire qualified workers and follow strict safety guidelines set by their state or the US government.
    • Contact the National Lead Information Center (NLIC) for help with finding certified contractors where you live and to see if financial assistance is available.