Blood lead levels in children

[Anxcromum]

A year before our children came along, me and my husband moved into our first home and did all the diy work in our 30s home without a any knowledge of lead paint (other than in external white paint).
I spent a week sanding a dark wood panelled hallway (20sqm of it) without any mask and straight onto a carpeted floor that we planned to get rid of but which ended up staying there for 8 years.
I didn’t give it a second thought until years later when I had a 6yo and a 3yo.
To cut a long story short, we tested the wood for lead and it came back positive. I realised that I had covered myself and the house in lead dust (can still remember the taste in my mouth to this day and vomiting on return to the house).
I mentioned this to a gp who obviously said it was too late to test or treat me (presumably had very high levels of lead at the time) but that it would be worth checking the kids since I would have passed on my lead stores to them during pregnancy and breastfeeding and that they could have continued to be poisoned by the heavily contaminated carpet on a daily basis.
They came back with 1.45d/L levels. Not extreme in comparison with historic childhood figures from 70/80s but >90th centile of their peers.
I dread to think what damage I’ve unwittingly done to them and I still struggle not to worry (my 7yo is prone to fits of rage and is very ‘emotional’).
Does anyone else have any experience with blood lead levels…?
I can’t be the only one who has stupidly done something like this in the home…?

Hello, I can provide no help unfortunately but I'm worrying about something very similar at the moment.

Last year we bought a 1957 house and have been renovating it since. Lead was never on my radar until maybe a month ago, and I'm 16 weeks pregnant now.

I stopped all major renovation work when I found out I was pregnant, but for some reason I decided that minor hand sanding of sticky doors would be fine (before I was aware of lead and its hazards) and did that about 2 months ago. Also, the week before I got pregnant I was sanding floors that have (in retrospect) worrying looking red wood stain. Was your wood panelling stained, varnished, or painted?

Now I'm freaking out that doors have lead paint, and the wood stain has lead, and that my levels may have been extremely elevated throughout the first trimester. It's very hard to get doctors to take it seriously. The maternity hospital (in ROI) have never hard of blood lead level tests, and my GP doesn't do it. I've managed to find a private clinic that will do it, and I'm just really hoping that my levels are low.

So, I can't really help, other than to say, you're not the only one who had done it. Why isn't lead paint more commonly talked about?

Sorry to hear that you’re in a similar position 😞. It’s a horrible place to be in.
I can find lots of info from American sources as they have routine blood lead level checks for 1 and 2 year olds (possibly for pregnant women too) and very rigorous laws about lead remediation etc. But reading these just made me feel worse as they are quite extreme in their practices and everything reiterates NOT sanding as the worst case scenario… and I can’t turn back time! Knowledge and understanding of this in the UK does seem quite patchy.
I would say our wood panelling was a very dark stain (not a gloss paint or a clear varnish). We’ve also sanded various skirting (gloss) and picture rails etc but nothing to the extent in area sqm of the panelling.
It seems that while acute exposure might not be so bad it is the chronic exposure that will damage. So depending on the remediation works you’ve done to dispose of the dust then you may be ok. We didn’t care about the horrible carpet and just left it but now understand that soft furnishings are the worst for holding heavy dust - particularly carpets which won’t clear with even HEPA hoovering (will just bring to surface every time you do).
So, some positives for you - 30/40s lead paint had highest levels before dropping off from 50s, I don’t believe it’s considered problematic in areas <1sqm, if you’ve properly cleaned then it won’t be a chronic exposure and if you get blood levels tested now then they will either put your mind at ease or can action chelation treatment if necessary. Also you can buy 3M lead tests for the paint!

You’ve posted about this before haven’t you? And got given a lot of advice

Hello, yes I had some 3M lead tests, but it looks like I got the very last batch available anywhere. They've discontinued them an d I can't find them anywhere. The ones I managed to get I used to test wall paint, which, in retrospect, was not the most likely place for lead to be. I should have been testing the wood!

The rooms were empty while sanding (with a respirator mask on thank god), and hoovered and mopped afterwards, but upon reading American sites, this is not enough at all. Hoovering apparently is a bad idea anyway.

Plus, I was using a heat gun to warm and scrape away some of the stain before sanding, and apparently this is the very worst thing you can do because the vapour / particles are then too small to be captured when hoovered and they go absolutely everywhere. Heat is the worst thing you can apply to lead apparently. I don't even know if the filter on the mask would have protected me from them, and I was doing this only 3/4 months ago, just before getting pregnant. My lead levels could be absolutely through the roof.

Are they planning on doing anything to reduce your childrens' lead levels, or is there anything they can do at this time?

Me? Nope

@CormorantStrikesBack me neither.

It’s sounds as though you’ve done what you can re mask and empty room then wet washing after. Certainly more than anything that I did!
My kids levels at their current age are not anywhere near actionable levels. Unfortunately I’ll never know what their levels were in their early months when they’d have been most susceptible.
That’s part of my frustration really - the unknown. For me and them. I can only hope that they wouldn’t have had high levels, or continue to have high body burden in bone stores, and that the current blood levels are an accurate reflection of the impact ie much higher than your average level but not at dangerous levels. The only thing that would give me the answer would be to turn back time! Or have a bone X-ray. Or have someone quantify levels of respiratory particles created from sanding (dependent on a huge variety of factors!). So I guess I’m not getting any answers soon but just hope for the best!

Ok, well if you do a search you may find an old thread with someone with the identical situation from a while back, she had a lot of replies you may find helpful

Think this is it. www.mumsnet.com/talk/childrens_health/4968675-diy-lead-exposure-blood-test-for-child www.mumsnet.com/talk/childrens_health/4968675-diy-lead-exposure-blood-test-for-child]]]]

You could all do a heavy metal detox. There’s loads of information online about them.

Ok thanks. I thought I had exhausted all lead related searches but maybe it just feels like!

@CormorantStrikesBack Really appreciate that, thanks. Shame the OP never posted their blood level results!

No worries, hope you find some of the responses useful, irrc someone who seemed to know a lot replied.

@Anxcromum how are you doing? Do you mind me asking about the blood lead levels you said the kids have, 1.45d/L? Everywhere I see blood lead levels measured in μg/dL.

What did the doctor say about their current levels, are they of concern now?

Sorry, I say that because 1.45 seems quite low, below the limit that I see that people are pushing for for children (2μg/dL). The current 'safe' limit in children is 5μg/dL, as far as I can see.

I've not been able to have any luck with either the maternity hospital, or my GP. Neither do lead tests, so there is nobody in the medical profession that I can talk to about this. Having said that I did manage to get a private blood lead level test and the result came back as <2μg/dL (they couldn't be more exact than that), but there is no aftercare, or discussion, just that number. They seemed to think that was very low.

Hi, was <2 your level? Averages for the following age ranges:
1-5: 0.7
6-11: 0.5
12-19: 0.4
20+: 0.9

90th centiles for the following age ranges:
1-5: 1.5
6-11: 0.9
12-19: 0.8
20+: 2.0

Don’t know if this helps you to gauge. My kids results are much higher than 90th centile. But, as you say, within ‘normal range’. Sub 1.0 is ideal and is the continuing trend for babies born after 2000s. I would have been born with significantly higher levels in late 80’s due to leaded petrol. Generally 1-5 year olds have higher levels as they have higher hand to mouth activity and are more susceptible to absorption.

GP is not worried as we have removed the carpet (after many oblivious years) which would have been the main remaining source of contamination.

@Anxcromum yes, all the could say was <2micrograms/dL. I asked for something more specific and she just said it was 'undetectable'. I'm trying to take comfort from that.

Like you, my levels as a young child in late 80s would have been higher.

Hi OP
how are you and your children now?

I am having a similar worry at the the moment - my children are 7 and 2. All of the woodwork in our 1900 home (and there is a lot - is stripped and we have old carpets. I am driving myself insane with worrying about it. And I’m really upset that it seems so preventable yet I had no idea about any of it but when I google it’s such a big deal in the US and is picked up really early and dealt with hopefully before damage sets in. I keep thinking about how both my children crawled around on the carpet (and still do!) not to mention constantly playing with and banging doors… they were both here whilst I was pregnant and in the crucial 0-2 time 😢
am also worrying that there are still some bits of paint / that it leaches into the wood and stays there apparently. Plus now I’ve gone down this obsessive rabbit hole I’ve found even more things to worry about that I had no idea could be an issue. How can it be such a big deal in the states and yet here no one cares and I had no idea?

i hope you and they are both ok and would be grateful for any update

Hi @Illy354 yes, your concerns sound much like mine.
Method of stripping can greatly impact quantities of lead (if your woodwork contains) ie sanding without suction, not covering household adequately, sealing off doors etc all makes a difference - all these things we were guilty of.
I came to the conclusion that blood tests, at the later age they were, came back ‘sufficient’ for their age and I have no way of telling what they were during those vital years so I couldn’t continue to worry about it as I was unable to change any of it.
I took comfort in knowing that if they had been significantly bad then there would have been more obvious signs; particularly learning difficulties and my children seem completely ‘normal’ or average (thankfully). We painted over our woodwork but it still regularly chips back to the old stain. I can live with it until my husband suggests sanding down to re-paint when it triggers everything for me again (I have ocd and he has zero concern about lead paint). But we find workarounds.
If we move house it’ll be to a modern one!

So kind of you to reply, thank you. I am very glad all is well with your children. My eldest has some Sen - he’s still very bright - they do line up with the whole list of lead issues but also run in dh family so who knows. He has been like that since birth though, I guess I was here during pregnancy. My youngest is totally fine thus far and im so worried over whether this will change. But rationally as you say there is zero I can do about it now and I have to live with it…. As there is nothing much I can do now I really just wish I hadn’t found out at all or education was better in this country.

your message has brought me some comfort and I sincerely hope I haven’t triggered anything for you by posting. I have health anxiety which has been under control for ages but flared up massively this week…. My dh also is not concerned at all and thinks we can’t do anything about it now so no point thinking about it! He also says he grew up with leaded petrol. I don’t really understand whether that would be comparable though.

thanks again x