Hand-to-mouth contact is how children get lead poisoning

I performed a lead-based paint inspection for a woman whose 2 year old child had elevated blood lead levels, according to her doctor who had the childs' blood tested. The woman said she knew about the hazards of lead-based paint and never leaves her child unattended. She knows not to let the child play at the old window sills, or anything that is old or may have compromised painted surfaces. She even threw out a bunch of toys she suspected might be from China with posible lead-paint surfaces.

I asked the woman to describe her daily routine: where she goes, where the baby plays, etc. I just could not figure this one out. The painted surfaces were not chipping or flaking, and no renovations had taken place.

I took lead paint samples from window sills, walls and ceilings, doors, and trim anyway, but they all came back negative for lead-based paint. I could not figure out how the child could've gotten lead paint in her bloodstream. The mother never lets her baby near these surfaces like the old window sills.

After going back to the woman, who was obviously distraught because she could not figure out where the elevtated blood lead levels were coming from, I decided to stick around and wait for her husband to come home as it was late afternoon already.

Her routine was simple as the mother was a stay at home mom. But at the end of the day, she waits on the front stoop for her husband, and the baby loves to see her father get out of the car and walk up the walkway.

Then I saw it. The brick stoop itself had ben painted and the paint was flakin off. The child has her fingers in her mouth, then crawls around on the stoop with the flaking paint, then puts her fingers back in her mouth. Voila!

I then sampled some of the paint from the stoop, and the results came back as containing lead-based paint. This was obviously the cause.

The stoop paint was removed by a company that does lead abatement, and in this case the landlord had to pay for it.

Luckily, the baby will be fine. You just never know where hazards can be. Sometimes right under your _ s s (nose)!