how dangerous is old paint in your house? (lead)

spaceboy

wallbash wrote: »

Yes , workers, 8 hours a day for years,nearly all dealing with blue asbestos , not found in paint, please find me how many DIY'ers who sand down a skirting board once every 5 years!

I drove along the M3 and the M25 this week, I was therefore statistically in far greater danger than the OP messing about with a piece of wood. Didn't stop me using the motorways.
We are raising a generation that is failing to learn even the basics of DIY ( Homebase is closing some stores it was announced this week)
H/S is just another nail in the diy coffin.

I repeat , the OP is in no danger.

WRONG. You are very ignorant of the risks from asbestos. Mesothelioma cases are higher in the UK than most other countries because we used to use so much asbestos insulating board in construction. That usually contains brown asbestos, or a mixture of brown and white asbestos. And the asbestos insulating board products were manufactured in the UK until 1980.

Blue asbestos is a lot less common but it is out there, still.

wallbash

WRONG. You are very ignorant of the risks from asbestos.

give me the risk to the OP , sanding down one piece of wood .
Put up or shut up.
Its people like you who hide behind scare stories and don't live in the real world.

spaceboy

wallbash wrote: »

give me the risk to the OP , sanding down one piece of wood .
Put up or shut up.
Its people like you who hide behind scare stories and don't live in the real world.

I am the OP, and I didnt bring up the subject of asbestos. I am also an asbestos surveyor/analyst

wallbash

spaceboy wrote: »

I am the OP, and I didnt bring up the subject of asbestos. I am also an asbestos surveyor/analyst

Of course you are :rotfl:

But lets pretend you are.

asbestos surveyor/analyst , who has a vested interest in publishing scare stories to justify their work .

Back to the OP , how dangerous is it for the Diyer to sand down a piece of wood..................????

cyclonebri1

So why is such a smart guy asking a question he should know the answer too??

Or does that tell you even more about asbestos surveyors than it does about lead paint??;);)

It's 45 to 50 years since paint containing lead was stopped, it will have had many coats of none lead on top since then. There is absolutely no risk unless you sand the lot off, and in that case it would take forever and chemical stripping would be far more cost effective.

There is a far far greater risk than lead in paint and that 2 is totally ignored;

There are hundreds of thousands of 1930's onwards homes that are still fed by lead pipes into the properties, ie, every drop of water drunk from the tap or used for cooking comes through it.

Heard of anyone dying from that yet??

spaceboy

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

So why is such a smart guy asking a question he should know the answer too??

Or does that tell you even more about asbestos surveyors than it does about lead paint??;);)

It's 45 to 50 years since paint containing lead was stopped, it will have had many coats of none lead on top since then. There is absolutely no risk unless you sand the lot off, and in that case it would take forever and chemical stripping would be far more cost effective.

There is a far far greater risk than lead in paint and that 2 is totally ignored;

There are hundreds of thousands of 1930's onwards homes that are still fed by lead pipes into the properties, ie, every drop of water drunk from the tap or used for cooking comes through it.

Heard of anyone dying from that yet??

Straw man point there as the discussion hasnt been about people dying from lead poisoning.

As to your first point I thought people here might know a bit more than I do about lead in paint. Apparently not.

spaceboy

wallbash wrote: »

Of course you are :rotfl:

But lets pretend you are.

asbestos surveyor/analyst , who has a vested interest in publishing scare stories to justify their work .

Back to the OP , how dangerous is it for the Diyer to sand down a piece of wood..................????

Yes that was the point. Wood with a coating of lead paint.

Ignore asbestos if you want, plenty people are still dying because of it, and plenty people are still being exposed to asbestos fibres because they dont know the asbestos is there where they are working. Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren died from mesothelioma in 2010, caused by him ripping down asbestos ceiling tiles in a shop he was refurbishing in 1974.

cyclonebri1

spaceboy wrote: »

Straw man point there as the discussion hasnt been about people dying from lead poisoning.

As to your first point I thought people here might know a bit more than I do about lead in paint. Apparently not.

I think they know enough to have decided that the risk isn't worth bothering about, best left undisturbed but still ok if only light sanding, otherwise strip chemically, but even that comes with it's own "COSHH" sheet.

I worked in an environment under asbestos ceiling tiles all through the 70's and into the 80's, we used to drill 2" holes up into them for pipe services, end up looking like homepride flour graders:eek::eek:

Yes I'm concerned now, but as you probably know, no one new the hazard back then, too late worrying now.

I had the lead service pipe take out and a plastic 1 moled in when I moved to this house 18 years ago.

The 1 thing I don't worry about is lead in old paint.
The concentration is just too low.
The other 2 examples I've given?, well, the asbestos is history, only time will tell, but consider the dead leg in your pipe work.
Water can be sat in there for say 2 weeks when you go off on hols.

Guess what's the first thing you do when you get back from the airport?, yep, you make the family a "nice" cup of tea:eek::eek:

spaceboy

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

I think they know enough to have decided that the risk isn't worth bothering about, best left undisturbed but still ok if only light sanding, otherwise strip chemically, but even that comes with it's own "COSHH" sheet.

I worked in an environment under asbestos ceiling tiles all through the 70's and into the 80's, we used to drill 2" holes up into them for pipe services, end up looking like homepride flour graders:eek::eek:

Yes I'm concerned now, but as you probably know, no one new the hazard back then, too late worrying now.

I had the lead service pipe take out and a plastic 1 moled in when I moved to this house 18 years ago.

The 1 thing I don't worry about is lead in old paint.
The concentration is just too low.
The other 2 examples I've given?, well, the asbestos is history, only time will tell, but consider the dead leg in your pipe work.
Water can be sat in there for say 2 weeks when you go off on hols.

Guess what's the first thing you do when you get back from the airport?, yep, you make the family a "nice" cup of tea:eek::eek:

Yes you make some good points there. To be honest I only started getting worried about lead in paint when I read an american website where they test lead levels in children. I dont know if they do that here as well perhaps as a matter of course, but also perhaps there was more lead in american paint?

As for the asbestos ceiling tiles, you're right you cant really do anything about it now, best not to think about it.

And regarding the lead service pipe, I will have to check that when I get the keys to the house. I will probably get it rewired before we all move in and will get any lead pipes taken out too. There's also an asbestos cement shelf in a bedroom cupboard and an asbestos cement under-stair soffit to deal with.

bluewater_ukk

Wonder if someone could advice, I am in the process of buying a flat which has been refurb by a national developer. Everything was going smoothly until I saw the draft contract and letter from solicitors today which mentioned there was asbestos insulating board located at the property. It was removed during the refurb word and air testing report forwarded to me which shows satisfactory result.


Should I be worried about the risks of asbestos once the air testing was clear? Ta