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From: Stephen Stepenuck <sstepenuck**At_Symbol_Here**ne.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Lead contamination [was: [DCHAS-L] Is lead sheeting a source of lead dust? And-Chemical Exposure question...
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 02:44:13 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: D967F0A5.48EE3%sstepenuck**At_Symbol_Here**ne.rr.com
Monona, et al.,
The “Boston EPA” results almost certainly came from the EPA Region 1 lab in Bedford, and I’ll bet were done by Dr. Tom Spittler. I did a sabbatical with him in the 1990s, and learned a lot. Some community agency planning a garden on some of its property had brought a soil sample to him for a “routine check.” He found astronomically high levels of Pb, and communicated his serious concerns re a garden there. He went on to document excess lead in countless other places, but alas I don’t have a specific reference to a publication. Hopefully the name, and the affiliation as Jim said will be helpful.
One irony of all that work was that the safety officer at the site pointed out that of course, no part of any of the samples he had received over the years—and there were drums of them by the time I arrived—could be disposed of as trash since they were of course hazardous waste. [We won’t think about 90-day limits because of course they might be used for something. ..]. Then came NIST [National Institute of Standards and Technology] to the rescue: would he please send them all the lead-contaminated soil he could muster, so they could use it to prepare an SRM [Standard Reference Material] for sale to meet the burgeoning demand?
As another list member has pointed out, lead contamination is ubiquitous. I painted houses for a living for several years, and can attest that not only chips, but dust, as from when we used electric sanders, traveled far. In fact, on a windy day and with a taller building, we had to ask people to move their cars from our side of the street, because the Pb-contaminated spatters had sometimes been so visible that litigation ensued. Dr. Spittler once told me that the half life of Pb in soil is 2000 yr. My students quantified it many years after it was banned in gas and paint.
Re the original post:
1. I would think that your workers exposure would be minimal, and
2. Since most cars still use lead batteries, those sheets should be a marketable commodity on the scrap market.
Good luck.
Steve Stepenuck
On 7/27/19, 10:13 AM, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety on behalf of Monona Rossol wrote:
And eating veggies from urban home gardens. do you have a year or other identifier for that article. Like to get a copy.
Monona
-----Original Message-----
From: James Kaufman <
jim**At_Symbol_Here**LABSAFETY.ORG>
To: DCHAS-L <
DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Sat, Jul 27, 2019 6:13 am
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Is lead sheeting a source of lead dust? And-Chemical Exposure question...
Boston EPA found that child lead poisoning went up in the summer (contrary to popular wisdom at the time) because of the lead pain chips in the soil around the homes when children were playing. ... Jim
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All the ground around buildings with lead roofs and lead/copper sheeting is usually high in lead. I know from the building restoration projects I've been involved in. And there was a big move a few years ago to continue to install lead roofs because they were what was here originally. Bad idea. There are now stainless steel roofing materials that will last MUCH longer and don't release anywhere near the amounts of metals and no lead.
One of the reason they have to replace the lead roofing and flashing every 30 years or so is it has corroded way in spots or has thinned. Where do you think that lead went?
And the restorers on these projects do NOT publish the data on the soil around the building. But I've seen it.
Monona
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