Facts About Lead: What Every Family Should Know

Many homes across Hampton Roads, including Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, and Newport News, were built before modern safety standards addressed lead hazards. Lead exposure remains a serious health concern, particularly for children and pregnant women. Understanding where lead is found, how it affects health, and what steps you can take to reduce exposure is critical for protecting your family. A professional home inspection can help identify potential lead risks, especially in older homes.

What Are the Key Facts About Lead Exposure?

Lead exposure can harm young children and babies even before birth. Children who appear healthy may still have dangerously high levels of lead in their bodies. Lead can enter the body by breathing or swallowing lead dust, eating soil or paint chips that contain lead, or through contaminated water.

There are many options for reducing lead hazards. In most cases, lead-based paint that is intact and in good condition is not a hazard. However, removing lead-based paint improperly can significantly increase the danger to your family.

If you believe your home may contain lead hazards, learning about lead and taking simple preventive steps can greatly reduce risk.

How Does Lead Affect Health?

Childhood lead poisoning remains a major environmental health problem in the United States. Even children who seem healthy can carry dangerous lead levels.

People are exposed to lead when they put hands or objects covered in lead dust into their mouths, eat paint chips or contaminated soil, or breathe in lead dust, especially during renovations that disturb painted surfaces.

Why Is Lead More Dangerous for Children?

Lead poses greater risks to children than adults because young children frequently put their hands and objects into their mouths, their growing bodies absorb more lead, and their brains and central nervous systems are more sensitive to lead’s damaging effects.

If not detected early, children with elevated lead levels may suffer brain and nervous system damage, learning and behavioral problems such as hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems, and headaches.

How Does Lead Affect Adults?

Lead exposure also harms adults and can cause pregnancy complications, reproductive problems in both men and women, high blood pressure, digestive issues, nerve disorders, memory and concentration difficulties, and muscle or joint pain

Where Is Lead Commonly Found in Homes?

In general, the older a home is, the more likely it contains lead-based paint. Homes built before 1978 are especially at risk, as the federal government banned lead-based paint in housing that year.

Lead can be found in homes across cities, suburbs, and rural areas. It may be present on interior and exterior painted surfaces, in soil around the home due to deteriorating exterior paint or past use of leaded gasoline, and in household dust that collects lead from paint or tracked-in soil.

Lead may also be present in drinking water if a home has lead pipes or lead solder. You cannot see, smell, or taste lead in water, and boiling water does not remove it. If you suspect lead plumbing, use only cold water for drinking and cooking, and run water for 15 to 30 seconds before use if it has been sitting unused.

Other sources of lead include certain jobs involving lead, vintage painted toys and furniture, lead crystal and lead-glazed pottery, industrial emissions, hobbies such as stained glass or furniture refinishing, and some folk remedies like greta and azarcon.

Where Is Lead Most Likely to Be a Hazard?

Lead hazards most commonly come from paint chips you can see and lead dust you often cannot. Peeling, chipping, chalking, or cracking lead-based paint requires immediate attention.

Lead-based paint is particularly hazardous on surfaces that children can chew or that experience frequent friction, including windows and sills, doors and frames, stairs, railings, banisters, porches, and fences.

Lead dust forms when lead-based paint is dry-scraped, dry-sanded, heated, or when painted surfaces rub together. Dust settles on surfaces and can re-enter the air when people walk, sweep, or vacuum.

Soil contaminated with lead becomes a hazard when children play in bare areas or when soil is tracked indoors on shoes.

How Can You Check Your Family and Home for Lead?

If you believe your home may have lead hazards, have both your children and your home tested. Simply knowing that lead-based paint exists does not necessarily mean there is a hazard.

Testing Your Family

Children’s blood lead levels often rise between 6 and 12 months of age and typically peak between 18 and 24 months. A simple blood test can detect elevated lead levels. Testing is especially important for children ages 1 to 2, family members exposed to lead, and children covered under local health screening programs. Your doctor can explain test results and whether additional testing is needed.

Testing Your Home

Homes can be evaluated through a paint inspection or a lead risk assessment. A paint inspection identifies the lead content of painted surfaces but does not determine whether a hazard exists. A risk assessment identifies active lead hazards such as peeling paint or lead dust and recommends corrective actions.

Qualified professionals should conduct testing using methods such as visual inspections, portable X-ray fluorescence devices, laboratory paint analysis, and surface dust testing. Home lead test kits exist but are not always reliable and should not be relied upon before renovations.

What Can You Do Right Now to Protect Your Family?

If you suspect lead hazards, take immediate steps to reduce exposure. Notify landlords about peeling or chipping paint. Clean up paint chips promptly. Wet-clean floors, window frames, and sills weekly using appropriate cleaners.

Never mix ammonia and bleach products, as they can create dangerous gases.

Rinse cleaning tools thoroughly after use. Wash children’s hands often, especially before eating and sleeping. Keep toys, bottles, and play areas clean. Prevent children from chewing painted surfaces. Remove or clean shoes before entering the home to avoid tracking in contaminated soil.

Provide nutritious meals rich in iron and calcium, as children with healthy diets absorb less lead.

Temporary measures such as repairing damaged painted surfaces or covering contaminated soil with grass can reduce exposure, but these interim controls require ongoing maintenance. Permanent solutions require certified lead-abatement contractors who can safely remove, seal, or enclose lead-based paint using approved methods.

What If You Are Buying or Renting a Home Built Before 1978?

Many homes built before 1978 contain lead-based paint. Federal law requires landlords and sellers to disclose known information about lead-based paint and hazards before leasing or selling. Buyers typically have up to 10 days to inspect for lead hazards.

Renovations that disturb painted surfaces can release lead dust. Contractors must provide the pamphlet “Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home” before beginning work. Avoid methods such as dry sanding, heat guns, or propane torches on lead-based paint, as these create hazardous dust and fumes.

If renovations have already occurred, have young children tested and follow protective steps immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions for Hampton Roads Homeowners

Is lead still a problem in older Hampton Roads homes?

Yes. Homes built before 1978 commonly contain lead-based paint and may pose risks if paint deteriorates.

Can lead-based paint be safe if it is not peeling?

Yes. Lead-based paint in good condition is usually not a hazard.

How do children most often get exposed to lead?

Through lead dust on hands, toys, floors, and surfaces, as well as paint chips and contaminated soil.

Should I test my home for lead before renovations?

Yes. Testing before renovations helps prevent releasing lead dust into the home.

Who should fix lead hazards?

Certified lead-abatement professionals with proper training and equipment should handle permanent corrections.