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Give your child healthy foods, high in calcium, iron and vitamin C, and low in fat. Remember to wash your child's hands often, especially before meals and after playing outside. For adults, symptoms may include headaches, joint pain, metallic taste, muscle weakness, digestion problems, change in personality, loss of concentration, and memory problems. Chelation therapy may remove lead to the point where it is less likely to cause harm, but it may not remove it completely. Common side effects include fever, headache, nausea, fatigue, rash, vision changes, and blood in the urine.
Don't let your kids play in soil that may be contaminated with lead. Fortunately, there are several things you can do even if the risk of lead toxicity is high. If you think you or a loved one is suffering from lead poisoning, go to a doctor immediately for treatment. Secondary testing/imaging for signs of other health effects may also be useful.
What are the signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in adults?
For either option, you should hire a certified lead professional to test your home for lead and to do any needed work. There are standards in place for certifying lead-based paint professionals to ensure the work is done safely, reliably and effectively. Locate a trained professional in your area who can evaluate and test your home for lead. Tells you if your home has any lead-based paint and if your home has any lead hazards, and where both are located. Darker colors represent areas with more blood lead tests.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. No lead levels have been found to be safe in kids, and even small amounts have been linked to behavioral issues and drops in IQ. Robyn Correll, MPH holds a master of public health degree and has over a decade of experience working in the prevention of infectious diseases. You’ll want to see lead levels below the EPA’s action level of 15 parts per billion.
How to renovate a home that has lead paint
Consider having a paint inspection done when you’re buying a home, signing a lease, or before you renovate. If you’re worried that there might be lead in your home, the first thing to do is find out the year it was built. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 25,080 times.
Abdominal radiographs may show the presence of radiodense lead foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract. These are helpful in cases of acute ingestion (e.g., of lead sinkers, curtain weights, jewelry, or paint chips) or unusual persistence of high blood lead values. Shrapnel or bullet fragments within tissues can also be observed.
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If your house was built before 1978 and your lead test kit comes out negative , you should have an accredited lab test the paint to make sure the lead test kit worked properly. Paint on structures built prior to 1978 is legally presumed to be lead-based, unless a state-certified Inspector/Assessor has quantitative testing to show otherwise. The most important areas to test for lead are those areas where children spend a lot of time, such as bedrooms, playrooms, kitchens, and play-yards.
Chelation therapy is the only treatment that can remove lead from the body. With that said, removing yourself from sources of lead is equally important, although this can be difficult if you live in an older home with lead paint or lead pipes. If you are doing renovations on your home, it’s important to take care during the process, especially if your home is older. This can minimize your risk of exposure to lead and may prevent lead poisoning.Don’t sand surfaces with lead paint. This can create large amounts of lead dust that you could inhale.
What can adults do to prevent lead poisoning?
Children whose blood tests at those levels should be tested periodically. A child whose levels become too high — generally 45 mcg/dL or higher — should be treated. Although lead in blood represents only a portion of the total amount of lead present in the body, a blood lead test is the best way to assess a person’s exposure to lead. Until you remove lead from these environments—or you remove yourself from these environments—you run the risk of lead poisoning. Lead poisoning treatment involves both limiting your exposure to lead and reducing the amount in your blood. Without treatment, exposure to lead can lead to severe and sometimes irreversible medical problems.
To do this, use a sharp knife to cut a slanted notch through all the paint layers on the spot you want to test. These kits can only tell you if there is lead in the paint you tested. You should also test places where you plan to repaint or remodel. If you are testing paint, test each different paint color. Your house has bare soil in the yard where children play. Taking blood from a child's finger is called a finger-stick or a capillary test.
During a blood lead test, a small amount of blood is taken from the finger, heel, or arm and tested for lead. Although children are at increased risk of the effects of lead poisoning, exposure via drinking contaminated water can also result in illness in adults. Even if you are experiencing these symptoms, it does not always mean you have lead poisoning.
While the effects of lead poisoning may be permanent, if caught early, there are things parents can do [PDF – 234 KB]to prevent further exposure and reduce damage to their child’s health. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. While the effects of lead exposure may be permanent, if caught early there are things parents can do [PDF – 234 KB]to prevent further exposure and reduce damage to their child’s health.
Chelation therapy is a treatment that uses drugs that remove toxic metals from the body. The drugs work by binding to metals in the blood and removing them from the body in urine or stool. This is especially true in younger children who tend to absorb lead more quickly than older kids and adults.
Initially, lead poisoning can be hard to detect — even people who seem healthy can have high blood levels of lead. Signs and symptoms usually don't appear until dangerous amounts have accumulated. If lead levels in the blood are high, steps may be taken to prevent further exposure. If the levels are high enough to pose serious harm, a process known as chelation therapy can help clear the metal from the body.
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