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The LEAD Group Inc
The Lead Education and Abatement Design Group
Working to eliminate childhood and foetal lead poisoning
by the year 2012 and to protect the environment from lead
ABN 25 819 463 114
Australians! Take action
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Proceeds from our DIY Home Lead Assessment kit sales go towards the
Global Lead Advice and Support Service administrative costs.

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The Importance of the Availability of "Spot Tests" for Lead in Paint

A FACT SHEET FOR HARDWARE & PAINT TRADE STORE MANAGERS

Update 17 December 2007

This fact sheet has been written by the Global Lead Advice & Support Service (GLASS) in response to the hundreds of requests and complaints we receive each year regarding the lack of warnings about the hazards of lead in pre-1970 house-paint. Our callers are at odds to understand this lack of warnings in the very places where people go to buy the equipment to remove paint, and are often especially distressed to have not been told that you can test for lead in paint. Once informed, people are usually quite willing to test for lead in paint before it is removed or the surface is prepared for re-painting.

The Global Lead Advice & Support Service has received over 56,500 calls since June 1995, mostly via our free call 1800 626 086 so we have had the opportunity to talk to a good many people about lead hazards and ways of dealing with them. The consistent message we hear from:

  • paediatricians treating whole families of lead poisoned children, 

  • do-it-yourself renovators who just discovered their sanding or heat gunning has poisoned themselves or their children or pets, 

  • painters who have failed to do a lead-safe paint removal job and are now faced with the clean-up, 

is that if the hardware store or paint trade centre staff had warned them about lead - then they would have known in time to do something about it.

The feedback is not all bad. We also take calls from very grateful renovators who tell us that if the staff at their local hardware store had not noticed they were buying a heat gun or dry sanding equipment and suggested that they purchase a spot test kit to determine first whether the paint contained lead, they would never have known. Customers are even more impressed if they are handed a free booklet on lead safe renovation - it shows that the staff care and it leaves the customer, as our callers report, with the sense that someone is looking after them.

The booklet - "Lead Alert: The 6 Step Guide to Painting your Home" is available free and in bulk by phoning Environment Australia on 1800 803 772. They come in boxes of 80 booklets, delivered free!

"STEP ONE" of the 6 Steps is "BEFORE YOU START, FIND OUT HOW MUCH LEAD IS IN YOUR PAINT" either by using a spot test kit, hiring a portable XRF operator (only available in Sydney) or finding a laboratory in the Yellow Pages. By far the easiest to achieve of these three methods is the spot test kit - if the kits are available at the local store. The test kits are usually cheaper than XRF testing and always cheaper than laboratory analysis, so people are more inclined to use them - if they are available.

Many of our callers complain that store staff simply said they had never heard of the test kits, or that they had run out of stock and not been re-ordered, leaving the customer unsatisfied.

Who Imports Lead Spot Test Kits
into Australia?

Lead Check test kits (colour changes to pink or red to indicate lead) are imported by:

  • Air Met Scientific Pty Ltd (two tests per pack) - Phone freecall 1800 000 744, 03 8878 3300

  • Blastech (sixteen tests per pack) - Phone 07 3329 5000

Who Supplies Australian-made Lead Spot Test Kits in Bulk for Paint Contractors?

  • Master Painters Australia (colour changes to black to indicate lead so test kits should only be used by someone trained to both handle the reagent safely and interpret the colour change - hundreds of tests per pack) - Phone 02 9746 2477.

What Else can be done to Raise Awareness About Lead AND Sell More Safety Equipment?

The federal Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) has also produced a colourful poster that has the heading "Painting an older home? Does your old paint contain lead? Lead is a health hazard", then simply says "Phone 1800 803 772 or ask at your hardware store for a six step guide about removing old paint." These free posters can also be obtained by phoning 1800 803 772 – the Community Information Unit.

The customer who sees this poster in their hardware or paint store (because it is displayed prominently in a logical placement next to the heatguns, dry sanders and scrapers etc) would have nothing to complain about, especially if the staff are also trained to notice when people are purchasing the equipment most likely to release large volumes of toxic lead fumes or dust or paint chips. And to ask the potential purchaser whether the building they are about to work on is older than 1970. If the building is older than 1970, staff then have the perfect opportunity to suggest the purchase of a lead spot test kit and hand over a free booklet.

The customer who has been looked after by being given a free booklet on lead paint removal is the kind of customer who is more likely to return to the store and to purchase items such as more spot test kits and P1 or P2 masks or dual filter respirators, spray water bottles and wet/dry sandpaper or sanding sponges for wet hand sanding, thick plastic sheeting and masking tape to collect paint debris wet-scraped from surfaces, liquid sugar soap, paint strippers, gloves, mop buckets, lots of sponges, good squeegee mops, etc, etc.

 

Further information and referrals

If you or your customers have further enquiries about safe lead paint management (or indeed any lead-related hobby or activity for which supplies might be purchased at a hardware or paint store) then please contact the Global Lead Advice and Support Service. The Dulux Customer Inquiry Line staff automatically refer callers who ask about lead or old paint to our service. We can provide callers with advice and information as well as referrals to painters in states where contractors have been trained to manage lead paint. After the paint removal or preparation work is done, we can sell them a DIY-sampling kit for testing lead in dust or soil in order to determine whether the home is safe for children to reside in once more.

Impress your customers by helping them get the information they need before it's too late!

The LEAD Group Inc. Fact Sheet Index

1. About the Global Lead Advice and Support Service (GLASS)
2. Main Sources of Lead
3. How Would You Know If You or Your Child Was lead poisoned?
4. Lead aware housekeeping
5. Ceiling dust & lead poisoning
6. Is your yard lead safe?
   
你的院子是铅安全的吗
7. Health Impacts of lead poisoning
8. Rotary Questionnaire
9. Lead poisoned Pets and Your Family
10. Childhood Lead Poisoning Risk Factor Questionnaire
11. Is Your Child Safe From Lead? - What Can You Do About Lead? pdf
12. Lead in Drinking Water in Australia
13. Have We Really Resolved The Lead Issue?
14. The Importance of the Availability of "Spot Tests" for Lead in Paint
15. Pregnant or Planning a Pregnancy
16. Breastfeeding and Lead
17. Lead in breast milk
18. Beware The Lead In Lead Lighting
19. Renting and Lead
20. What to do if you have too much lead in your tank water.pdf
21. Lead Contamination in Stormwater.pdf
22. Contamination At Shooting Ranges.pdf
23. Banned: Leaded Wick Candles
24. Lead, Ageing and Death
     
铅,衰老和死亡
25. Metal miniatures: How to minimise the risks of lead poisoning and contamination
26. 7 Point Plan for the MANAGEMENT OF LEAD by Australian parents and carers
27. Countries where Leaded Petrol is Possibly Still Sold for Road Use, As at 10th May 2010
28. Lead Poisoning And The Brain - Cognitive Deficits And Mental Illness
29. Facts and Firsts of Lead
30. Lead mining royalties by state and territory
31. Lead Mining Stewardship - Grey Lead and the Role of The LEAD Group
32. Preventative Strategies of The LEAD Group
33. What do Doctors need to do about Lead?
34. A Naturopath's Experience Of Lead & People With Diagnosed Mental Illness
35. Case File: Helping Manage Australian Lead in Petrol - How GLASS Works
36. Glass Web & Service-Users, Experts & Volunteers, by Country; Countries with Leaded Petrol for Road Use & Worst Pollution
37. Lead in ceiling dust
38. Lead paint & ceiling dust management - how to do it lead-safely
39. Esperance parliamentary inquiry follow-up factsheet: Where to from Here??
     
埃斯佩兰斯议会调查后续情况说明书:从这里去哪里??
40. Broken Hill lead miners factsheet 1893 with Note 20081015
41. Helping a Doctor Help 35,000 Lead-Poisoned People Around the Lead Smelter at La Oroya in Peru
      Ayuda a un doctor que ayuda 35,000 personas envenenadas por plomo alrededor de la fundidora de plomo en la Oroya-Peru
     
案例档案:帮助一个医生救助在秘鲁的拉奥罗亚的铅冶炼厂周围的35000铅中毒的人民全球铅咨询和支持的服务机构是怎末工作的
42. Fact sheet for Australian toy importers and traders
43. Iron Nutrition & Lead Toxicity pdf
      Informe de Acciones – Hierro y Plomo en la Nutrición pdf
    
情况说明书铁的营养和铅的毒性 pdf
44. Sanitarium-Are You getting Enough Iron pdf
45. Do-It-Yourself-Lead-Safe-Test-Kits-flyer
46. Blood lead testing: who to test, when, and how to respond to the result
47. Dangers of a blood lead level above 2 µg/dL and below 10 µg/dL to both adults and children pdf
48. Lead Exposure & Alzheimer’s Disease: Is There A Link?  
49. In CHINA - Blood lead testing: who to test, when, and how to respond to the result
     
在中国血铅测试:谁应该去检查,什么时候,如何对待不同的测试结果
50. Why you should have your ceiling dust removed before you take advantage of the Australian government's Energy Efficient Homes Package: Insulation Program
51. Alperstein et al Lead Alert - A Guide For Health Professionals 1994 pdf
52. Ceiling Dust WorkCover Guide Lee Schreiber Final Nov 1999 pdf
53. What can I do about climate change AND lead?
54. The Need for Expert Clinical Assessments in Diagnosis Of Heavy Metal Poisoning
55. Why you should have your ceiling dust removed before you have insulation installed
56. Thirty Thought-Starters on Ceiling Void Dust in Homes
57. Pectin: Panacea for both lead poisoning and lead contamination
58. Nutrients that reduce lead poisoning June 2010
PDF
59. Lead poisoning and menopause PDF
60. Fact sheet For Schoolkids From Professor Knowlead About Lead PDF

About Us / Contact Us / Council LEAD Project / egroups / Library / Fact Sheets / Home Page / Media Releases / Newsletters
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Visitor Number

Last Updated 18 August 2010
Copyright © The LEAD Group Inc. 1991- 2010
PO Box 161 Summer Hill NSW 2130 Australia
Phone: +61 2 9716 0014 Fax: +61 2 9716 9005