Old Homes Are Full of Lead

Lead was used as pigment with lead (II) chromate (PbCrO4, “chrome yellow”) and lead(II) carbonate (PbCO3, “white lead”). Lead was originally added to paint for many reasons but the most important to the original manufactures was that lead helped the paint resist moisture that caused corrosion. Perfect attributes that paint needed.

My father in law was a chemical engineer at DuPont for many years. When I asked him the reasons for the lead additive he gushed at leads ability to keep rust off the oil derricks that he happen to specialize in. He also mentioned that the lead also gave the paint a wet look as if it had just been painted on. Now I am not sure why that would appeal to an oil derrick but I can definitely see why the consumer market liked this poison so much. It’s pretty and cheap as dirt.

I live in central Florida where most of the houses in the downtown area where built between 1920’s and 1950’s which was lead chromates prime time. Most houses that were built in the 50’s contain lead paint somewhere. If you scrape off enough exterior, of a house built in the 50′s, it will fail a paint lead test. If you have old cabinets, which have not been painted over 10 times like the exterior, it would probably fail a paint lead test.

Tags: lead test, paint lead test

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