What are some other sources of lead in the home?
Lead in the indoor environment can come from any lead painted surface and what we have to be careful about is remodeling projects where you maybe taking down a wall, where you may be changing the way the door frame exists, widening a door opening - any of kinds of those remodeling projects you could be freeing up a lot of built up lead in your home. Freeing it up so that young children, pets, yourself can be exposed and it's particularly important if you're pregnant and you live in an older home to not have a remodeling project going on with you living in the house unless it's done under scrupulous conditions where there's no dust that gets out in to your environment will you may get exposure to that lead dust because the most important period for brain development is in the womb and lead is known to be very toxic to brain development during that time. Other places that you should be aware about that could come from your home environment are consumer products like pottery. Imported pottery especially. It has been more of a problem from Mexico. I don't want to single out Mexico, because it could be coming from any place where you bring pottery in, if you traveled somewhere and brought some pottery from a local potter, or if it's imported from places like Mexico, it may have lead glaze and so you would not want to eat out of that particular mug or that particular bowl. The other concern is crystal glassware. Crystal is often leaded glassware. Lead makes glass shinier and unfortunately the lead isn't locked in to the glassware but can leeched out under acidic conditions so wine can leech lead out and you can be exposed to lead in your drinking goblet. You don't want to use leaded crystal glass were to drink out of. It may be fine if you want to have it on your display case to have a nice effect in your home but definitely don't drink out of leaded glassware. And then we also want to remember that lead paint was not only used inside the home but it was also used on the exterior of the home as well. So from years of weathering that paint has flaked off the average house, it has landed in soil, and that leads to soil contamination. Whether it is around an old shed or out in the middle of your yard, or whether it's right around the foundation of your home because the lead will tend to fall out and accumulate right in the immediate buffer zone around the home the first couple of feet or around an old painted fence or an old playscape or an old painted shed.
