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Lead An Invisible Danger for Your Children

by Jane Hewson reprinted from; 

The Newsletter of the Western Australian Art Glass Guild

When our baby boy Oliver turned one year 1 took him to have his routine check up and was surprised to find he was under average weight.  We followed this up with a blood test to check his lead levels as it had been at the back of our minds as Oliver's Father is a Leadlighter.

To our horror his levels were 25.  Everyone we spoke to was vague about what was acceptable and what wasn't.  Through speaking to lots of people and our own research these were our findings for a child.

·         above 10 not acceptable -levels will drop if not exposed

·         above 20 required a visit from the Health Dept to inspect premises - levels will drop if not exposed

·         above 40 very high - child need to be admitted to hospital for treatment

Our family was then tested and results were Vaughn (leadlighter) -26 Jane (not involved) -5

For a adult anything below 40 is acceptable.

Obviously our concern was how Oliver was contaminated.  Until he was nine months old the leadlighting was done in a spare room in the house.  He was never allowed in the room, but spent a lot of time in the next room.  We suspect a few ways he may have been exposed.  Firstly from fumes from the soldering, from paint used to paint on glass and particles from his fathers clothing and shoes.  Also Vaughn would scrub his hands with ordinary soap.

We have since found particles can possibly travel in the air from soldering and lead based paint He may

have sucked his father clothing with particles on it. Ordinary soap does not remove all traces of lead.

Tiny pieces of lead can easily get stuck on the soles of shoes and then transported into house.

The steps we have taken to make sure Oliver is not exposed are, firstly moved the leadlighting from the house.  His father now has a separate set of clothes which he works in, including shoes which never come into the house.  He washes all his leadlighting clothes separately.  Vaughn scrubs with a relatively new product on the market from the US called Cleanall which guarantees the removal of all lead.

Our concern is with other people who are pursuing their hobby of leadlighting (our business started as a hobby in the spare room) and are not aware of the dangers for children.  Often hobbyists are restoring an old window which can be the most dangerous as lead dust has built up and becomes airborne when the window is pulled apart.

We have found lead exposure can be an invisible danger especially for very young children. Particles on clothing and traces on shoes can be enough to bring a child’s levels above the acceptable level of 10. Children are extremely vulnerable to lead, starting when they are in the womb. What may not affect any adult can affect a child.