Lead safety course offered this month

   A certification course on lead safety will be held at the Washington Fairgrounds on Tuesday, July 27. The class will last from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. in the old schoolhouse. The course, known as ?Lead Safe Renovator Certification? will be taught by Jeff Johnson, director of the Residential Environmental Division of Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP).

    The Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule stating that contractors who perform renovations that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities and schools built before 1978 must be certified in lead containment practices. The ruling was issued in 2008 and went into effect in April of this year.

    Johnson remarked that learning about lead safety is important because lead poisoning is so harmful.

    ?Lead poisoning is horrible,? he said. ?It causes developmental disabilities in children. That?s why there is an emphasis on those properties where children are. Children who are exposed to it can develop learning disabilities, emotional problems and their hearing can be affected, too.?

    Johnson said lead poisoning takes an incredible toll on those affected and that it lingers in their bodies for many years.

     ?Lead can be transferred from females to their fetus,? he said. ?Lead can stay in the bones for 40 years. It isn?t something that just goes away. We?re talking about special education for someone for the rest of their life, and there is a huge medical cost to reduce the lead in a child?s body.?

    A common way for children to get lead poisoning is by eating lead paint chips. 

    ?In most cases, the children ingest it,? said Johnson. ?For young children, everything they touch goes in their mouth. Lead paint tastes sweet. It tastes like honey. That?s why some children eat the paint chips.?

    The easiest way to reduce the chances of lead poisoning in your home is to keep it clean, said Johnson. He said that if you have lead-painted floors then you should carpet them.

For the full story, see the July 6 edition of The Washington Evening Journal