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David E. Jacobs,¹ Howard Mielke,² and Nancy Pavur³

¹Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington DC, USA; ²Xavier University, College of Pharmacy, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; ³United Parents Against Lead, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Abstract

The costs of lead-based paint hazard control in housing are well documented, but the costs of cleanup after improper, inherently dangerous, methods of removing lead-based paint are not. In this article we report a case of childhood lead poisoning and document the costs of decontamination after uncontained power sanding was used to remove paint down to bare wood from approximately 3,000 ft² of exterior siding on a large, well-maintained 75-year-old house in a middle-income neighborhood. After the uncontrolled removal of lead-based paint, interior dust lead levels ranged from 390 to 27,600 µg Pb/ft² (on floors and windowsills) and bare soil lead levels ranged from 360 ppm in the yard to 3,900 ppm along the foundation to 130,000 ppm in the child's play area, well above applicable U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The hard costs of decontamination were over $195,000, which greatly exceeds the incremental cost of incorporating lead-safe work practices into repainting. This case report highlights the need to incorporate lead-safe work practices into routine repainting, remodeling, and other renovation and maintenance jobs that may disturb lead-based paint. Key words: childhood lead poisoning, housing, lead, lead-based paint. Environ Health Perspect 111:185-186 (2003) . doi:10.1289/ehp.5761 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 15 January 2003]