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 factsheet 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 freecall 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:

Ø  paediatricians treating whole families of lead poisoned children, 

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

Ø  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.

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.

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.