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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.
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Who
Imports Lead Spot Test Kits
into Australia?
Lead Check test kits (colour changes to pink or red to indicate
lead) are imported by:
-
Who
Supplies Australian-made Lead Spot Test Kits in Bulk for Paint
Contractors?
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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 The
Six Step Guide To Painting Your Home." 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!
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