Lead in our Household Environment
Elevated blood lead is a notifiable disease. When it is found at the notifiable level it is followed up by someone at Public Health to investigate the source of the lead.
There is a lot of lead in our environment. It was used to paint our houses until 1979 when white lead was banned, and also in petrol until it too was banned in 1996. Other sources of lead include toys that have been painted with a lead based paint. Some toys are imported from countries without a ban on lead-based paint and some of those are tested by Eurofins.
We have recently been involved in an interesting case of lead poisoning where a young girl had developed high blood levels and health authorities were investigating the possible cause.
For children presenting high blood levels the cause is most often identified as coming from an old house previously painted with a lead based paint. This lead-based paint most commonly becomes a problem when homes are renovated and lead dust is formed from sanding and flaking off. This dust can settle in and around the home and in the surrounding gardens often in areas where young children tend to play.
What is most surprising is that lead paint is sweet and children develop a liking for the taste, children have been known to chew on windowsills and baby cots when lead is present for this reason. It is so sweet that the compound lead acetate used in the paint is considered a sugar substitute! It has been used widely since Roman times and is also known as ‘sugar of lead’.
Recent studies have also found that chickens kept by a household that was once painted with lead-based paint absorb lead from the soil and pass this into their eggs.
Families eating those eggs can end up with elevated levels.
In this most recent instance, Eurofins received an eyeliner powder for analysis. This eyeliner was purchased overseas and returned a result of 724,000 mg/Kg – that’s 72.4% and is the highest lead result we have ever recorded in any product.
The child may have absorbed the lead through the moist lining of her eyes or more likely by eating it.
It is unlikely that any beauty products on the New Zealand market would have elevated lead levels.
Some traditional Chinese and Indian medicines can contain percent levels of lead which have caused lead poisoning. These medicines have also been found to contain elevated levels of other toxic heavy metals including Arsenic and Mercury.
