Okay, I'm a little worried about this. I moved into this OLD (built in 1961) apartment at the beginning of April. When I signed the papers I asked the landlord if there were any hazards in the building that I should know about, like lead-based paint, asbestos, etc, and he answered with a pretty confident no. I believed him, forgot about it and went about my normal life. I lived in this apartment like it was completely safe. I opened windows, stuck my head out of windows, walked barefoot, washed everything without heavy-duty protective gear, I bit my nails after touching furniture that had dust on it... you name it, any normal human activity, I did it without thinking twice. Here is my room:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzDc1E5TyLY&feature=plcp[/ame]
You could see the nasty paint peeling off the other side. I tested a sample of that paint earlier today by dropping in into a solution and the results were pretty scary. It turns out the paint has lead levels MUCH higher than what is allowed by the EPA, the highest concentration measurable by the test-kit I used since the water turned black.
I lived in this house for 4 months. Sometimes I put the little silver fan (visible in the video) into the window. On many nights, I kept the window open as I slept. Sometimes I would find pieces of paint on the floor that the wind had blown in. I simply picked them up with my bare fingers and chucked them into the garbage, thinking it was totally safe.
The wind usually blows in from the outside. How much lead particles could be picked up and carried in with the wind? Assuming I didn't get high levels of lead into my blood stream from picking up small pieces of lead paint with my bare fingers, how much lead could I have gotten by simply inhaling air that had traveled across and in between lead paint chips over a period of 4 months?
I am going to get my blood tested tomorrow.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzDc1E5TyLY&feature=plcp[/ame]
You could see the nasty paint peeling off the other side. I tested a sample of that paint earlier today by dropping in into a solution and the results were pretty scary. It turns out the paint has lead levels MUCH higher than what is allowed by the EPA, the highest concentration measurable by the test-kit I used since the water turned black.
I lived in this house for 4 months. Sometimes I put the little silver fan (visible in the video) into the window. On many nights, I kept the window open as I slept. Sometimes I would find pieces of paint on the floor that the wind had blown in. I simply picked them up with my bare fingers and chucked them into the garbage, thinking it was totally safe.
The wind usually blows in from the outside. How much lead particles could be picked up and carried in with the wind? Assuming I didn't get high levels of lead into my blood stream from picking up small pieces of lead paint with my bare fingers, how much lead could I have gotten by simply inhaling air that had traveled across and in between lead paint chips over a period of 4 months?
I am going to get my blood tested tomorrow.
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