Multiple metal contamination from house paints: Consequences of power sanding and paint scraping in new orleans

Power sanding exterior paint is a common practice during repainting of old houses in New Orleans, Louisiana, that triggers lead poisoning and releases more than Pb. In this study we quantified the Pb, zinc, cadmium, manganese , nickel, copper, cobalt, chromium, and vanadium in exterior paint samples collected from New Orleans homes (n = 31). We used interior dust wipes to c ompare two exterior house-painting projects. House I was measured in respon se to the plight of a family after a paint contractor power sanded all exte rior paint from the weatherboards. The Ph content (similar to 130,000 mug P b/g) was first realized when the family pet died; the children were hospita lized, the family was displaced, and cleanup costs were high. To determine the quantity of dust generated by power sanding and the benefits of reducin g Pb-contaminated dust, we tested a case study house (house 2) for Pb (simi lar to 90,000 mug/g) before the project was started; the house was then dry scraped arid the paint chips were collected. Although the hazards of Pb-ba sed paints are well known, there are other problems as well, because other toxic metals exist in old paints. If house 2 had been power sanded to bare wood like house 1, the repainting project would have released as dust about 7.4 hg Pb, 3.5 kg Zn, 9.7 g Cd, 14.8 g Cu, 8.8 g Mn, 1.5 g Ni, 5.4 g Co, 2 .4 g Cr, and 0.3 g V. The total tolerable daily intake (TTDI) for a child u nder 6 years of age is 6 mug Ph from all sources. Converting 7.4 kg Pb to t his scale is vexing-more than 1 billion (10(9)) times the TTDI. Also for pe rspective, the one-time release of 7.4 x 10(9) mug of Plo dust from sanding compares to 50 x 10(9) mug of Ph dust emitted annually per 0.1 mile (0.16 km) from street traffic during the peak use of leaded gasoline. In this pap er, we broaden the discussion to include an array of metals in paint sind u nderscore the need and possibilities for curtailing the release of metal du st.