By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Portage County residents will be able to visit a house built before 1980 to see "lead-safe" practices next week.
A demonstration house at 1908 College Ave. will be open to homeowners from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 22, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 24, so they can see efforts to curb problems from lead paint.
The demonstration at the home owned by Rich Somers is on the heels of a Lead-Hazard Awareness Training he and other landlords are undergoing this week in Madison and at the College of Professional Studies Building on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus.
Somers has set up 25 different examples of lead-safe practices in the house he is remodeling, posting results of lead tests in various areas.
One example is three window well areas. The first test found 10,000 micrograms per square foot in one that wasn't cleaned. "I was surprised how high the window well was," Somers said, adding that the lead hazard is increased because of the wood rubbing against the painted trim alongside the windows.
When a second window well was vacuumed and cleaned, the testing found 3,153 micrograms per square foot.
A third window well was vacuumed, cleaned and then washed in a two-pail system so the mop or sponge never is immersed in dirty water. A test found the reading in that area was reduced to 720.
Somers said his work in the demonstration house is trying to show that the work to make a residence lead-safe can be cost effective, including the use of an expensive encapsulating paint.
The effort is prompted by efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Housing and Urban Development to prevent lead poisoning in homes that may contain lead-based paint hazards.
Lead poisoning can cause permanent damage to the brain and other organs as well as reduced intelligence and behavioral problems. Lead can also cause abnormal fetal development in pregnant women.
The hazards are particularly high in houses built before 1978 when the dangers of lead paint were identified, and this fall home buyers and renters will receive pamphlets about those hazards before ratification of a contract for sale or lease.
Gary L. Garske, environmental health sanitarian for the Portage County Health and Human Services Department, said the prevention could save a homeowner future costs.
He said children 1 to 2 years old should be tested twice a year because lead poisoning can affect them the most as their brains are growing.
Children under 6 are the most susceptible to problems from lead paint, and he said the practices shown in the house are good options for landlords who want to improve the situation for their tenants.
Cost is an issue if someone gets lead poisoning, he said. Last year, a child got lead poisoning, which prompted an abatement order to clean up the house, which gets very expensive, he said.
Somers said the lead-safe practices aren't adding a lot to the remodeling costs. Workers used a respirator during demolition and the main thing is spraying the area with water before working on it to avoid dust spreading, he said.
Dust is confined in the work area by using plastic around the entrances to rooms, or enclosing an area, such as around a window, in plastic and working in an enclosed environment.
He also converted a shop vacuum to meet standards of a high-efficiency particulate air filter and used a number of other contamination procedures, such as booties to wear over shoes and a contact-type covering on floors to avoid tracking the dust outside the area.