Remediating lead-based paint.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, lead poisoning is the single most important health problem facing young children in the United States today. Lead poisoning in children can cause irreversible damage to the nervous system, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders,

While children are particularly vulnerable, adults who ingest hazardous levels of lead are also at risk. Effects on adults can include anemia, headaches, hallucinations, hypertension, kidney damage, convulsions, paralysis, and death.

FIGURE 1
Percentage of All Painted Areas Using Lead-Based Paint

Construction
    Year       Interior   Exterior

1960-1979         2%         18%
1940-1959         8%         43%
Before 1940      21%         61%

Source: What Remodelers Need to Know and Do about Lead,
National Association of Home Builders, November 1993
FIGURE 2
Percentage of Total Surface Area Exceeding 1.0 mg/[cm.sup.2]

Interior

Walls and ceilings       6%
Cabinets                 9%
Doors                   16%
Baseboards              19%
Door trim               23%
Windows              31-35%
Radiators               60%
Stair trim              63%

Exterior

Stairs                   2%
Balconies                3%
Doors                   15%
Soffit/fascia           16%
Door trim            19-39%
Siding                  41%
Railings             35-51%
Window trim          29-61%

Source: What Remodelers Need to Know and Do about Lead,
National Association of Home Builders, November 1993

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), deaths and acute illness from lead poisoning are now rare. This is due at least in part to the removal of lead from urban gasoline, solder in water pipes and food cans, and tank liners in drinking fountains. At the same time, the presence of lead in much of the nation's housing stock poses serious potential problems.

Managing a building's lead risks correctly is all-important. Lawsuits against owners and managers of buildings with lead hazards are similar to those against owners of buildings with asbestos. And as is the case with asbestos, lead-based paint removal is often not the best solution. It is possible to create a real hazard by removing paint improperly when very little danger would have existed if the paint had been left intact.

Lead is only dangerous when it is ingested, as when a child teethes on a window sill painted with lead, or when lead dust becomes airborne and people breathe it.

At the same time, because lead is stored in the body, ingesting small amounts regularly can lead to poisoning. Potentially hazardous situations that probably require remediation include:

* chipping, peeling, or powdery paint;

* paint located on a surface that undergoes friction or impact;

* painted surfaces accessible to children's mouths; and

* lead-based paint disturbed during renovation.

Lead-based interior and exterior paint is only one source of lead in buildings. Lead can make its way into a building's drinking water from pipe solder and into soil from industrial operations using lead or from other sources.

Assessing potential lead hazards

Lead-based paints were manufactured until the mid-1970s and commonly applied until 1960. John Hannah, vice president of Architectural Deleading, an abatement company based in Windham, N.H., states that if a building was constructed before the mid-1970s, it has the potential for containing lead-based paint.

An estimated 70 percent of the buildings in the United States constructed before 1960 contain lead-based paint (American Academy of Pediatrics, Lead Poisoning: From Screening to Primary Prevention, 1993). Before 1955, because lead was thought to produce superior paint, white paint was 50 percent linseed oil and 50 percent white lead.

If the building dates to the early fifties, states Patrick J. Lehne, vice president and general manager of American Environmental Services of Portland, Ore., a nationwide lead abatement firm, you have a good chance of finding lead at least on the building exterior and some chance of finding it in the bathrooms and kitchens.

According to Lehne, lead was substantially reduced in residential paint in the mid-sixties. If a building's construction date is between 1965 and 1970, lead might be present somewhere, most probably in the exterior. The older the building, the more chance you have of finding lead.

Douglas G. Thayer, CPM [R], of Thayer & Associates, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., states that he presumes a building has lead if it was built before 1970. He has a lead paint tester analyze paint in these buildings to determine whether or not state lead-paint safety standards are met.

According to the National Association of Home Builders (What Remodelers Need To Know and Do about Lead, 1993), intact paint that is a mixture of lead and non-lead substances poses lit-fie risk to the vast majority of children and adults. Lehne concurs: "Lead in paint by itself is not dangerous as long as the paint is left intact. It becomes a problem when it has broken free from the surface and is ground into a dust or a child is picking it off the surface and eating it."

Eugene Burger, CPM, president of Eugene Burger Management, Greenbrae, Calif., comments, "The most problematic lead-paint hazards are the areas that are of access to children--window sills and door casings, lower areas."

One problem cited by Lehne is lead paint on double-hung windows that undergo friction as they are opened and closed, thereby creating dust. This is the type of hazard that often requires abatement. Other surfaces painted with lead might simply require monitoring.

Monitoring load-based paint

In a multifamily building with lead paint on the kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, and kitchen walls, states Lehne, the first step would be to inspect all units to make sure these surfaces are intact. A log for all units should detail the condition of the paint in each and the date the inspection occurred.

After the initial survey, continued inspections are essential. The frequency of these inspections depends upon how old the structure is, the condition of the paint, and whether or not the property has a percentage of children among its residents.

"You have a starting point with the original inspection," states Lehne, "but what if the day after the inspection, a resident's children have a water fight in the kitchen and completely soak the walls? Sooner or later, the paint is going to start peeling from the kitchen walls."

Hannah states that the key to managing lead paint in place is not allowing it to become loose and flaky. He recommends annual or bi-annual inspections, with particular attention given to exterior trim, windows, and door casings.

A maintenance program to keep the paint in place should include wet-scraping any loose paint, priming it, and painting over it at least once per year. This procedure does not rid the building of a potential hazard, but it keeps existing lead paint from presenting an immediate threat. States Hannah, "Basically, you never allow the paint to get flaky; you keep the paint tight."

Lead paint abatement

In some states, you must abate lead-based paint in apartment units with children. In other states, monitoring in place is sufficient. However, if lead paint is already in a friable condition, abating it generally is the only safe solution to the problem. When lead paint requires abatement, you have four options:

* removal of the paint;

* removal of the building component that is coated with the paint;

* encapsulation (using a special paint-on substance over the lead paint); and

* enclosure (permanently affixing another hard surface over the painted surface).

Because of the potential for creating hazardous dust, only licensed, certified abatement contractors should remove lead-based paint. In a state that has a lead-paint law, the state provides the license.

Acceptable lead-paint removal methods include the use of chemical strippers, wet scraping, and the use of power tools with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) vacuums that pull dust into a filter system. "If you sand off all the paint," remarks Lehne, "that component is no longer affected, but the rest of the apartment is contaminated."

You can also remove lead paint by detaching the affected building components (e.g., the windows), sending them to a stripping shop, and having them dipped with a chemical stripper off-site. This reduces the danger of creating hazardous lead dust in your building.

The second abatement alternative is permanent removal of the component with the lead problem, meaning replacement of cabinets, doors, windows, baseboards, or other building elements. An advantage of this option is the opportunity to upgrade units with new components. Another is that less risk is posed by remediation procedures.

The third alternative is encapsulation, in which you use a paint-on product designed to be permanent. According to Lehne, many new lead-paint encapsulation products are on the market and are undergoing testing by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, but none has yet been approved for use in federally-funded housing. These are usually resin-based, thick liquids that dry to produce an extremely hard surface.

Lehne recommends these products only for building components that are limited and unaffected by daily wear and tear. An example is the gable end of a roof that is not directly impacted by rain or other weather conditions. The encapsulation products might also be useful for exterior scrolling or trim you do not wish to remove.

The fourth alternative is enclosure with a permanent pick-proof, child-proof covering over the affected component. Materials effective for enclosure include ceramic tile, vinyl, wood, and stone. If exterior siding contains lead, for example, covering the old siding with new vinyl siding would probably be an acceptable abatement method.

Abatement costs

Costs--and cost estimations--for lead-paint abatement vary widely. Thayer estimates that it costs between $6,000 and $8,000 to remediate lead hazards in a single apartment unit.

He comments that between removing unit molding and removing paint on the molding, so far he has found that it is cheaper to remove the paint. With windows, on the other hand, he has found it less expensive to replace affected double-hung windows with new, more energy-efficient windows that are still double-hung and preserve the look of a property.

Burger describes cost estimates for lead paint remediation for a group of three high-rises in Oakland, Calif., containing 321 units in all. The first abatement company he contacted found lead-based paint on metal door frames (about 1,000 doors) and estimated the costs for abatement at $1 million.

Burger next had the buildings retested by another certified abatement company. This company found no lead on the doors, but on the stair treads instead. The cost estimate for remediation was several thousand dollars.

Burger adds that lead is found frequently on the steel beam that penetrates the center of the area containing concrete steps and steel risers leading to the second level of a garden-style building. In one instance in Hawaii, five miles of railing paint had to be removed from this area. The three bids he received for the procedure were $290,000, $280,000, and $95,000.

On the cost differences among the abatement options, Hannah comments that removal and replacement of the element containing the paint is usually the most expensive. Removal of the paint through wet-scraping is usually the least expensive. However, if the painted surface contains detailed moldings or other hard-to-scrape areas, it might be cheaper to remove the building component. Says Hannah, "It all depends on the surface you're scraping."

Abatement safety

Because lead dust poses such a significant health risk, preventing workers and occupants from ingesting or breathing it during abatement is a number-one priority.

Safety procedures include air monitoring, containment and isolation of work areas, respiratory protection, and correct cleanup and disposal of lead-containing substances. Notices should inform building inhabitants of the location and dates of abatement procedures. Paths of building ingress and egress should bypass the areas undergoing work. Also check state laws to determine if there are local safety and notification procedures that must be followed.

The room in which abatement takes place in an apartment unit should be sealed from the rest of the unit with plastic. Whatever dust that is created should be

contained in that room. Workers, dressed in full body suits with hoods and shoe covers, must not enter areas of a building other than the work site; they risk tracking lead dust onto carpets or other floor areas. Similarly, residents must not enter work areas.

Carpet poses a serious problem during lead-paint remediation because of the impossibility of getting lead dust free once it enters carpet fibers. David Parks, CPM, senior property manager with Crow-Charlotte Management Inc., Charlotte, N.C., comments, "There's just not a vacuum cleaner around that's going to get lead dust out of a carpet." Plastic should completely seal any carpet in danger of exposure to lead dust.

Other containment procedures include sealing heat ducts with plastic and turning off a heating system during abatement. Otherwise, lead dust enters the HVAC system and spreads through the apartment or building.

If an abatement procedure occurs throughout a unit, workers should cover the floors with two layers of 6-mil plastic. After the workers have removed all the paint or building components, they should use a phosphate-based chemical solution to spray the entire area, ceiling to floor. Because phosphate tends to suspend lead particles, the solution collects any remaining lead dust and washes it to the plastic. Workers must perform this procedure twice if the abatement is required by HUD. The Illinois Department of Public Health recommends damp mopping any surface that has collected paint dust with a phosphate-containing detergent or tri-sodium phosphate (TSP).

Abatement workers should reduce the amount of debris and dust created to the greatest extent possible. Unless tools are specifically designed for lead abatement work (e.g., HEPA vacuum tools), workers should not use power tools.

OSHA standards mandated as part of the Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 limit the average amount of lead dust in air that a worker is permitted to breathe.

According to Lehne, you often can judge an abatement contractor by the condition in which the contractor leaves a work site after abatement. Paint chips should be collected and sealed in airtight, puncture-resistant plastic bags for disposal by a qualified hazardous waste company.

The following materials may be subject to EPA hazardous waste disposal regulations: lead paint scrapings, lead dust, vacuum cleaner filters and bags containing lead dust, non-filtered waste water containing lead dust and chips, and debris from any paint stripped with hazardous paint strippers.

Burger recommends checking everything after an abatement. The company working on the Hawaii remediation job apparently did everything according to procedure and left no obvious debris. However, Burger inspected the property thoroughly after abatement and found a large pile of lead-paint chips on top of an exterior entry-door light fixture.

Even if a work site looks clean after abatement, it may not be lead-free. Thayer reports that after one abatement procedure, a resident noticed paint dust in her chimney. The abatement company was asked to return and remove the dust. Lehne recommends waiting 24 hours after an abatement procedure to allow any dust to settle and then sending samples to a lab for testing.

Lead in water

While the major EPA lead-hazard focus to date has been on remediation of lead paint, lead in drinking water is unfortunately a widespread problem.

An EPA study of 660 tap water systems across the country recently found unhealthy levels of lead in some 130 water supplies affecting 32 million people (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS [R], Real Estate Facts, August 26, 1993). Lead was banned in solder and pipes in 1986. Water coolers with lead-lined tanks were recalled and banned in 1988. However, plumbing in many older buildings may still contain lead.

Lead in water has the potential for being the most deadly of all lead hazards. This is because water goes directly into the food chain; you use it to mix baby food, you use it to cook, and you drink it.

Lead found in a building's drinking water could come from a city water supply, the source line from the street to the property, the plumbing in the building, the plumbing in a unit, or the fixtures in a unit. Proper testing should reveal exactly which of these is the source of a lead problem. Then a contractor can remove only the element that causes the hazard.

According to Salvatore Cali of the Midwest Training Center at the University of Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago, if your state has lead hazard requirements, a state-licensed lead inspector should test your water. The first step is to collect water samples. You can perform this procedure according to instructions from the inspector. Water must not be drawn from the system in question for eight hours before collection for testing.

Cali describes the procedure for single-family homes. The first sample (drawn immediately upon turning the faucet on) is of 250 cubic centimeters of water; the second, of 750 cubic centimeters; and the third and fourth, of 250 cubic centimeters each. If lead is found only in the first sample, but not in the subsequent samples, lead is assumed to be contained in the faucet; if lead is found in the second sample, but not in the remaining two samples, lead is thought to be from the home's plumbing system; if lead is found in the third, the city water main is presumably the culprit; and finally, if lead is found in all four samples, lead is assumed to come from the city water source. The procedure depends on the length of the piping and also varies according to the size of the building for which testing is conducted.

Testing for lead in drinking water should include all buildings at a property. A plumber might have run out of lead-free solder after the construction of one building and used a lead solder during the construction of the next.

Cali adds that only in highly unusual circumstances does a building owner need to rip out all the plumbing in a building. The only instance of plumbing replacement with which he is familiar involved a child who had dangerously high blood lead levels found through a routine screening procedure; the lead was from solder used in the building's pipes.

In many cities, lead from the water main connected to a building is still considered the responsibility of the building owner. If lead is found to be from the city water supply itself, discussing the problem with city water treatment officials is probably your only option.

Lead in soil

Lead gets into soil from three basic sources: automobile exhaust, exterior paint, and industrial- or neighborhood-generated sources. For example, improperly sanded exterior lead-based paint from one building might get blown into the yard of the building next door. Sandblasting a bridge before painting in one case contaminated a 20-square-block neighborhood in the surrounding area.

Cali remarks, "You find greater concentrations of lead in urban areas and in places near roadways because of the use of leaded gasoline. Paint flaking off the sides of buildings or playground equipment is also a problem."

Cali cites situations in which you might want to test soil for lead: areas that have been exposed to heavy traffic; areas where there is a potential for contamination from a nearby industrial lead source; and ground with no grass, especially if children play in the vicinity.

Levels of lead in soil that cause official concern vary from state to state. The levels range from about 300 parts per million in Minnesota to about 1,000 parts per million in some states. Remarks Cali, "You usually hear people talk about 500 parts per million or 1,000 parts per million as levels for concern."

Except for sandy soil, lead usually lies on top of the ground. This means that people can easily track it into a building, and wind can easily blow it into windows. Lead from outside, according to Lehne, is thought to contribute to at least 50 percent of the lead found inside lead-contaminated apartment units.

The most effective remediation method for lead in soil is to have the soil hauled away. Burger used this method when lead was found on a property adjacent to a day-care playground. The operation involved taking out 18 inches of soil and replacing it with fresh topsoil.

Unfortunately, hauling away lead-contaminated soil is often cost-prohibitive, especially if a lab determines that the soil is hazardous waste according to EPA standards. States Cali, "We just don't have enough hazardous waste dumps in the world to get rid of huge amounts of soil." In Illinois, says Cali, if soil is classified as hazardous waste, removing it costs between $250 and $500 per barrel.

Putting in sod or other ground cover is also an option. While you do not rid the soil of lead this way, you at least make the lead inaccessible to children who play in the dirt and you prevent the lead from being tracked inside a building.

Conclusion

Lead-based hazards from paint, soil, or water could pose a serious threat to the well-being of residents. While keeping lead paint in check is essential, abatement is not always necessary.

Remediation procedures performed incorrectly may cause a greater hazard than lead left in place. Monitoring surfaces painted with lead regularly to ensure they remain intact is often the best course of action.

Unlike intact, undisturbed lead paint, lead in a water supply enters the food chain directly. Ridding water of hazardous lead levels is therefore vital.

Finally, dangerous levels of lead in soil create a problem for residents not only because children tend to play in dirt, but because lead usually remains on the soil surface and often finds its way into apartment units.

Dorothy Walton is a writer with First Analysis Corporation, Chicago. She develops investor reports on companies in the environmental services, special chemicals, and communications areas. She was previously a developmental editor with the Institute of Real Estate Management.