• Home
  • About
    • Contributors
    • Disclosure Policy
  • Green Your Life
  • Contact
  • Advertising

Live Renewed

Live with Compassion. Care for Creation. Impact your World!

  • Green Living
  • Family & Children
  • Impact Your World
  • Simple Living
  • Renew Your Life

Green in 365: The Living Room – Lead Paint on Windowsills

January 25, 2013 By Emily McClements
Thank you for supporting this site with purchases made through links in this post.

Ready to remove toxic cleaners from your home? Find out how!

 

Green in 365 series

This is Day 25 of the Green in 365 series!

If you live in an older home like we do, there could be a toxic chemical lurking in a place that is easily accessible to your children; your window sills, frames and tracks.

If your house was built before 1978 it is highly likely that lead paint was used somewhere in your home. Lead paint that is in good condition and not peeling, chipping or cracking is usually not hazardous.

Windows, though, are especially prone to cracking and chipping paint because of opening and closing them, and the exposure to outdoor air, which leads to lead paint chips exposed and lead dust being released into the air in your home. And many window sills are right at a child’s height for playing or looking out the window, and being exposed to the lead based paint.

chipping window paint

Photo by Jason Bolonski

Lead is especially dangerous for children, whose brains and bodies are still developing, and can lead to severe issues like brain damage as well as slower growth and anemia, and for pregnant woman whose exposure can effect her developing baby. (source)

I have to admit that this is one issue that scares and overwhelms me, and that we have yet to take action on in our home. We do have old windows with paint that is chipping, but I’ve always assumed that the paint is not lead based because I can see several layers of paint on the windows underneath the paint that is chipping. And when my son was tested for lead at one year old, his levels came back within the normal range. But, we shouldn’t just assume, for the health and safety of our family, we need to take some action.

If you are concerned that your home contains lead paint, you can start with purchasing a at home lead testing kit, there are several brands that are less than $20, to test for lead around your home, but be aware that these kits are not 100% accurate, and cannot test for lead below the surface. If you suspect that you have lead paint in your home, and/or your at home test comes back positive for lead, the best thing to do is hire a certified lead testing and removal service.

It’s also very important to think about lead paint before doing any remodeling or renovating your home, so be sure to hire EPA Lead-Safe certified contractors who can reduce the risk of lead exposure with safe working practices and thorough clean up.

Keeping your home well-maintained and dealing with any peeling or cracking paint is the best way to minimize your family’s exposure to lead paint in your home. For more information please visit the EPA’s lead poisoning site.

I know what we’ll be doing this weekend; getting a home test kit to get started testing our home for lead!

Please share your experience with us! Have you tested your home for lead paint before? How have you dealt with deteriorating lead paint in your home?

Find all the Green in 365 posts.



__________________________________________

If you’d like to learn more about living green and living frugally I’d love to have you as a Live Renewed reader! You can subscribe, either by email or in a reader, to get the latest posts, ideas and inspiration for living frugally green. You can also connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest!

*Disclosure – There are affiliate links in this post. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I’ll receive a small commission. Thanks for supporting Live Renewed!

6 CommentsFiled Under: Green in 365 Tagged With: green in 365, living room, reducing toxins

hanging curtains for extra insulationGreen in 365: The Living Room – Window Treatments Default ThumbnailGreen in 365: The Living Room – Using Your Ceiling Fan choosing eco-friendly furniture for your living roomGreen in 365: The Living Room Furniture Green in 365 seriesGreen in 365: The Living Room – Buying Electronics

Comments

  1. Kate says

    January 25, 2013 at 1:24 pm

    This is definitely an issue that has been on my mind a lot in the past. In December, we bought a house built in 1954. During our inspections, all the paint seemed to be in good condition. But because some of the windows were painted shut, per our contract, the former homeowners had to have at least one operable window per room. They accomplished this by using a crowbar on the frames, chipping the paint. I was totally freaked when we moved in because we have a 2 year old and there were paint chips on the sills!

    But I did some research and feel much better about the whole situation. This is what I learned: although lead paint was officially banned in 1978, its use was phased out much, much earlier than that. My dad, who worked in a paint department of a major store in the mid-60s, said that by the early 60s people were switching to acrylic (latex) paint. Prior to latex, they used oil based, and finally, lead before that. Lead paint just wasn’t that popular mid-century because it was a pain to use.

    At least in our house, we can tell there is only one, maybe two coats of paint on all the trim and then we can see bare wood. Again, when doing research, I found that the trend of painting woodwork white (or other colors) didn’t become popular until the late 1970s, early 1980s. Prior to then, it wasn’t considered good sense because it devalued the house. Just by looking, we can tell the paint on our window sills and trim is just too new to be remotely lead based. Lead based paint has a very tell-tale appearance, it was chalky and greenish. It just didn’t come in a rainbow of colors like we have today.

    So like you said, testing is the sure fire way to make sure there is no lead in your paint. And I definitely wouldn’t do any remodeling without have an expert check for lead and/or do lead abatement. It’s just not worth it. But in our case, I feel reasonably reassured that if there is ANY lead paint at all in our house, it might be on the walls, which have been painted over at least a dozen times. A lot of this depends on when a house was built, of course.

    Hope that helps, and I’ve been really enjoying the Green in 365 posts!

    Reply
  2. Chelsea McDowell says

    January 26, 2013 at 1:16 pm

    I live in a very old Chicago apartment and have a 6 month old baby girl. Our whole apartment has probably been painted over 5 dozen times… and chips a lot. I think it’s time to test. Thanks for this post.

    Reply
  3. Backpack says

    January 28, 2013 at 11:27 pm

    Stunning quest there. What occurred after?

    Take care!

    Reply
  4. growth-flexv pro says

    April 6, 2013 at 12:04 am

    My developer is trying to persuade me to move to
    .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
    But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on various websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform.
    I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net.

    Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress posts into it?
    Any help would be really appreciated!

    Reply
  5. SixFlagsTicketsCoupons.com says

    April 9, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    Besides this, there is Melrose Area for finding some vintage stores,
    Robertson Boulevard and Broadway

    Reply
  6. Hip Replacement Lawsuit says

    November 18, 2013 at 10:21 am

    With 167,000 new cases, this is double the increase of the previous year and this ushers in a worrying trend.
    The recall of the products that resulted to the filing of various hip recall
    class action lawsuitswas due to the high five year revision
    rate of its ASR hip replacement systems. It is a well known fact that numerous law firms and individual legal representative have their web presence, which makes it easier for the people
    to take their help without any doubt.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

My Book: Get started with a green and healthier life today!

Green Your Life is Now Available!

FREE Green Cleaning Guide!

Get your Free Green Cleaning Guide!

Popular Posts!

An Intentional Summer Plan and Routine for Kids
How to Completely Clear Off Your Kitchen Counters

Join me on Facebook!

FREE Green Cleaning Guide!

Get your Free Green Cleaning Guide!

Join me on Pinterest!

Copyright © 2023 Live Renewed · Custom Design by Simply Designs

Copyright © 2023 Live Renewed · Graphic Design By: Creative Kristi Designs · Log in

Privacy Policy
Ready to remove toxic cleaners from your home?
Get your FREE Guide to 5 Non-Toxic Cleaners and get started with green and natural cleaning today!
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.