Lead is something we don't think about very much in modern-day America. Why would we? Lead is mostly used industrially these days. Short of events like the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, lead exposure seems like a thing of the past. However, in the not-too-distant past, this dangerous heavy metal was everywhere. We used it in pencils, we put it in cosmetics, we used it in paint... it was one of those miracle metals we didn't realize caused serious health problems until it was way too late. Once absorbed into the body, lead stays put, and it can cause problems in every major internal organ. In large enough quantities, lead can even kill. Selecting the best lead paint treatment is critical

Which is why if you're moving into a house built before 1978, it's a good chance to check the paint to make sure it's safe with Lead Paint Testing. We recommend going to Home Depot online to select a kit.

According to the EPA, 1978 was the year the federal government officially banned the use of lead-based paint. That didn't do anything to fix the lead that was already coating walls all across America, though, and several of those walls still have lead-based paint on them. It might be under a few newer coats of paint, but the lead is still there. Worse, over time, that lead-based paint can wear down, and turn to dust. That dust gets on your skin, in your mouth, in your eyes, and now it's in your body, whether you wanted it there or not.

That's why, before you move into a home (especially an older home), it's important to check it for lead contamination. Once you've had the tests done, and you know for sure that there is or isn't lead in your home, you can take the next step. Either sighing in relief and getting on with your life, or deciding how you're going to remove that lead before it can cause you and your loved ones any grief.

Earlier this year, the news of children in Flint, Michigan suffering from lead poisoning due to the tainted water supply in the city, made parents all over the country nervous.

If the news of Flint, Michigan's water problems made you shudder in fear at the thought of your children ever being exposed to dangerous levels of lead through the water supply, you should know that water isn't the worst culprit of lead exposure. 

According to the New York Times article, "Flint is In the News, but Lead Poisoning is Even Worse in Cleveland" by Michael Mines, lead poisoning is a concern in cities all over the country.

"Too much lead in children’s blood has long been an everyday fact in  too much lead in children’s blood has long been an everyday fact in Cleveland and scores of other cities — not because of bungled decisions about drinking water, but largely because a decades-long attack on lead in household paint has faltered."

The only way to make sure your children are safe is to invest in lead paint testing for your home. This is especially important if you have recently moved, or if you live in an older home.

Hopefully, no lead will be found in your home's paint.  However if lead is found in the paint in your home, we can walk you through how to solve the problem quickly and effectively. You will need to use the right lead paint removal treatment products.

We want to help you provide a safe environment for your children. Please contact us to learn more about lead paint testing for your home.

You have just purchased a house built before 1978 and you're worried about the potential dangers of lead. So you take a trip to the hardware store or choose to buy an at-home lead paint testing kit online from vendors such as Home Depot.  Is this a good idea? Or, should you have your home professionally tested?

The major advantage of at-home test kits is they are an inexpensive option. But, can they be trusted? According to Consumer Reports they can, but the reliability is not without a caveat.  First, you must make sure you do the test properly. Depending on which kit you get, following the instructions are not always easy, and reading the results are, at times, challenging. Plus, there are two types of tests. One uses sodium sulfide, the other rhodizonate. Each have issues with particular colors of paint.

Moreover, there are differences between kits that test for paint containing lead and kits that test for lead dust issues. Those who know (or assume) lead is present in their home take the latter test. They simply want to know whether or not the lead will be an issue. These tests also require mail-in results, as well as a set of step-by-step instructions. From Maine Public Health, here is a video of the process.

Yet, even if your home passes a lead dust kit test, that doesn't mean your house will stay free of lead problems. With at-home tests, your nerves could eat at you. "Did I do them right?" Perhaps if you lack confidence in such tests, you may want to have a professional inspect your house, identify the risks, and recommend corrections.

If you've determined lead is not a problem (for now), but you know lead is present, wouldn't you want to take the necessary steps to prevent it from becoming a problem in the future?  If so, contact us. ECOBOND® LBP is our patented lead sealant and treatment formulacontains an advanced technology thatseals and treats the lead and lead dust in lead-based paint. The formula includes lead treatment reagents, paint penetrators and high quality water based paint providing up to a 95% reduction in lead hazards and controls the spread of airborne lead dust by up to 99% and now resists acid rain.

Options for Lead Paint Testing

If you are a parent, likely one of your number one priorities is to keep your kids safe.  You child-proof your home when they are little, buy them helmets and knee pads for riding scooters and bikes, and watch them carefully on playgrounds and in pools.  You hold their hands when crossing streets and strap them into car seats and strollers so they'll be safe from harm.

Yet you may not realize a hidden danger your children may be exposed to every day in your own home: lead.  Any home or facility built before 1978 likely had lead paint put on its walls, doors, trim, and windowsills. Children under the age of 6 are most at risk for lead poisoning and the toxic effects it can have on their health.  According to a brochure released by the Environmental Protection Agency, this is because their growing bodies absorb more lead, their brains are more susceptible to the damaging effects of lead, and they are more likely to put things in their mouths as they are very oral at these young ages. This means they may have lead dust on their hands while crawling around and ingest it when they put their hands in their mouths, or they may eat fallen paint chips.  They are also more likely to chew on door frames and windowsills, exposing them to lead paint particles.  Also, if you are pregnant and breathing in lead dust particles from the air in your home, your baby is at risk in-utero.

According to the brochure from the EPA, risks to children include nervous system damage, learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder, behavior problems, muscle damage, and hearing loss among other things, and can even lead to death. This is a real and present danger.

So what can you do about this risk?  First, if you are considering purchasing a home built before 1978 or are currently living in one, you will need to proceed with lead paint testing  of the home as soon as possible. We recommend buying a kit from Home Depot. You currently have three options for lead paint testing in your home:

1. Purchase a home test kit from a home improvement store.  These are inexpensive and produce quick results.  However they don't tell you how much lead is present.
2. Send in samples to accredited laboratories.  A list of laboratories can be found here at the EPA website. You will want to call the laboratory and find out instructions of how to collect the samples and send them in. The lab will be able to tell you how much lead is present in a given sample. This is a more expensive route than a home test kit, but is more thorough.
3. Hire a Licensed Lead Risk Assessor.  You can hire an assessor to test for lead as well as to make sure all the lead has been properly contained or removed. This also costs more than a home test kit but will be more thorough.

Once the presence of lead has been confirmed, you must choose to contain it or remove it, or both.  Removal must be done carefully by a professional since removal releases lead particles into the air.  Fortunately there is a safer option available to homeowners and contractors alike. ECOBOND® LBP is a "specialty paint product formulated to seal and treat the hazards of lead based paint." It seals in the lead so that it is no longer a hazard or makes it safe for removal by professionals.  

Painting over the lead based paint with ECOBOND® LBP is a cost-effective option for homeowners who want safety without breaking the bank.  Once this product is applied you won't need to worry that you and your children will be exposed to lead in your home from paint sources. ECOBOND® LBP Lead Defender® is specially formulated with patented lead treatment reagents made with food-grade additives  to take advantage of the natural binding properties with lead. This proprietary blend provides advanced human bioavailability reduction, in case of accidental ingestion of the treated lead paint dust and chips. (your specific results may vary) 

Third party independently documented test results utilizing US EPA method confirming the effectiveness of ECOBOND® LBP in protecting human health.

Contact us for more information on lead paint testing and the ECOBOND® LBP products we offer.

This March 17 you better be wearing green if you don't want to be pinched by a child.  If your job keeps you clear of children and children in adult bodies on St. Patrick's Day, consider wearing green anyway in support of the Green Building movement. One way to achieve this is to make sure you do not have any lead based paint in your home. Once you have tested your home with an in-home lead paint testing kit that you can pick up at any Home Depot, if there is any lead paint, you need a Lead-Based Paint Treatment

What, you may say; I am not much of an environmentalist.  That is a common misunderstanding of building green.  The green building movement is taking into account not only the environment, but also the economy, and society when designing, engineering, and constructing buildings or remodeling old ones.  Building green is a balance between the big three for the most reasoned approach.  Its principles should be considered in your company's customer services department, finance and accounting, human resources, you name it. 

And building green is not just a part of the construction aspect. Sustainable building practices are part of the project's siting to design, design to construction, construction to operation, maintenance, renovation and eventually even its demolition.  It is so much more than sealing up drafty air spaces in the walls.  At ECOBOND®, we are especially proud of our part in the green building cycle of safely and economically assisting commercial retrofitters with the evaluation and treatment of possibly lead-paint-laden project sites.   

So this St. Patty's Day, wear green, and tell your colleagues you are not afraid of a little pinch, you are just showing your support of the green building movement.  Then, contact us to put your support of the color green to work in your next construction or retro-fitting project. 

New Study Touts the Benefits of Green Building

Dodge Data & Analytics recently completed a study of global green building trends, with the help of Saint-Gobain, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Regenerative Network. While the study examined green building trends in a number of countries, the section on the United States is cause for much encouragement, but with one or two areas for improvement.

An increasing percentage of respondents reported that at least 60 percent of their new building projects will be green, from 24 percent in 2015 to 39 percent by 2018. Respondents who reported that less than 15 percent of their new projects will be green plunged from 47 percent in 2015 to 27 percent by 2018. While impressive, the numbers are less than those from some other countries such as Brazil, China, and Saudi Arabia.

American firms are increasingly using green building practices in not only new construction of commercial and institutional building (46 percent of American respondents as opposed to 38 percent globally) but on retrofitting older buildings to make them more “green” (43 percent of American respondents as opposed to 37 percent globally.)

76 percent of American respondents note that reducing energy consumption is the greatest reason for engaging in green building practices, double the number of responses that gave reducing water consumption as a reason. Green building practices are paying off, with a nine percent reduction in median operating costs in the first year alone. Green buildings have risen seven percent in value compared to more traditional buildings.

However, only 57 percent of American respondents report using metrics to measure green building performance, as opposed to 75 percent globally, possibly because American builders are the most concerned about the high, upfront costs of green building.

ECOBOND® LBP, LLC is the nation’s leader in developing and distributing products that improve the protection of human health and safety from the hazards of lead in the home, workplace, and the environment. With over 15 years in patented and proven success, the ECOBOND® family of products have been extensively used in successfully treating lead hazards in over 11,000,000 tons of material while serving over 100,000 customers in the United States and Internationally.

To learn more view our lead paint treatment video below

The Sistine Chapel boasts one of the most beautiful artifacts in the world. It's covered with the vivid clouds and cherubs, the smooth flesh tones and flowing fabrics, the warm and pure expression of Italian art history. For four long, painful years, Michelangelo stood on scaffolding, painting the ceiling in intricate detail. In 1509 he described the physical strain of the project in a poem. “I’ve already grown a goiter from this torture...  My stomach’s squashed under my chin; my face makes a fine floor for droppings.”

He may have been suffering from more than just the muscle aches associated with working long hours in an unnatural position. But it took another few centuries before the 1834 London Medical and Surgical Journal described symptoms of what became known as “painter’s colic”. It correctly defined this as a “nervous affection” of the intestines, occurring when lead “is absorbed into the system.”

Other old masters, too, were subject to lead poisoning. Goya painted with his fingers. He suffered from blindness and vertigo. Van Gogh notoriously sucked on his paintbrushes, as the pigment was sweet to the taste. 

It's unfortunate that the world's greatest artists from ages past did not have access to lead paint removal products. But today, we have a whole arsenal, beginning with ECOBOND® LBP which is specially formulated with patented lead treatment reagents made with food-grade additives to take advantage of the natural binding properties of lead and phosphate to render lead virtually non-hazardous. This proprietary blend provides advanced human bioavailability reduction, in case of accidental ingestion of the treated lead paint chips.  (your specific results may vary)
We don’t cut corners. Third party independent testing documented results that confirmed the effectiveness of ECOBOND® LBP in protecting human health.

Because the fact that the minerals significantly resist breakdown and absorption of lead in the stomach, lead is hindered from getting into the blood stream by reducing in vitro bio-accessibility (IVBA) of lead from 50% to 85% on multiple samples***

Get it Right the First Time: Industrial Projects for Lead Paint Removal

When managing industrial projects for lead paint removal, remediation and remodeling contractors as well as demolition crews face tremendous pressure - and have a responsibility - to do it right the first time, not only for the sake of their customers and the public, but also for their own workers. 

Patented Solution for Remodeling, Renovation, Demolition, and Disposal

ECOBOND® LBP is a patented specialty coating combining a high-quality acrylic latex paint with natural lead treatment reagents and proprietary softeners for enhanced adhesions and permeation.

As a result, ECOBOND® seals and treats the lead and lead dust in lead-based paint, effectively providing a leave-on application that renders the treated materials non-hazardous for safe disposal.

Managing Air Quality Compliance and Soil Migration Issues

Most lead paint removal projects must document RCRA EPA compliance regarding disposal of treated items and control of lead airborne particulates.

For this reason, many lead  contractors treat with ECOBOND® prior to scraping and/or blasting in a containment system. The patented, comprehensive formula is a multi-use product that assists in compliance while at the same time providing for worker and vicinity/residential safety.

ECOBOND reduces air quality and soil migration concerns because the process seals lead and lead paint dust rendering demolished/treated items on-hazardous for disposal. In the process, when properly used, it also reduces airborne lead dust particulates, greatly reducing contamination at the worksite. 

Due to its broad applications and consistently favorable test results, the multi-purpose product is a popular solution among contractors and government agencies alike.

ECOBOND® LBP is allowed for use as a Lead Paint Interim Control in all 50 states, and can be used as a self-priming interior paint or to prep surfaces for most topical coverings, or as an exterior primer prior to application of standard exterior topcoat.
It is ideal for home, office, commercial facilities, schools, factories, and DOT structures.
ECOBOND® LBP’s superior adhesion and unique Paint-it-on Leave-it-on® formula can be used on a variety of properly prepared surfaces, including (but not limited to):

•                     Wood

•                     Drywall/Plaster

•                     Steel

•                     Masonry   

•                     Brick

•                     Metal

•                     Concrete

•                     Asphalt

As a matter of fact over the last 10 years, thousands of residential, commercial and governmental contractors became dissatisfied & frustrated with traditional lead paint treatment products and made the decision to replace their old encapsulant products. They found that when they started using ECOBOND® LBP to treat lead paint on interior and exterior surfaces, it gave them better results with low odor, low VOC, quick-dry penetrating resin, firm anchorage and paint application compatibility.

They can now treat lead based paint in a leave-on application or remove it, rendering it non-hazardous for disposal!

WARNING: Learn how ECOBOND® LBP Lead Defender® Lead-Based Paint Treatment is different than Encapsulants! Why Just Cover it When You Can Treat it!

Download free Industry Report:http://www.LeadPaintRemovalReport.com  

When it comes to industrial lead paint removal projects, everyone is focused on the same goal: removing the hazard without causing additional risks to those in the area. For the sake of your workers, residents, and everyone in the vicinity - shouldn't you learn as much as possible about your lead paint removal products? 

Questions about compliance or testing? Contact us.

* EPA Method 1311: Reduces lead hazards by up to 95%

**ASTM E1613-12: Reduces airborne lead dust by up to 99%

***EPA 9200.1-86: Reduces relative lead bioavailability by up to 75%