December 12th, 2017
The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH), with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and support from Battelle, partnered with state weatherization programs in Rhode Island (RI) and Maryland (MD) and with local agencies in Indianapolis, Indiana (IN) to conduct a study of the effect of weatherization activities on levels of lead in settled dust in homes. The study was divided into two smaller studies: 1.A study of dust-lead creation during four paint-disturbing activities (cutting holes in knee walls and ceilings to gain access to attics, repairing windows, replacing windows, and planing thresholds/installing weatherstripping on doors); and 2.A study of dust-lead dispersion during two activities (blower door tests and dense-packing of walls). The Oak Ridge Institutional Review Board (IRB) determined that this project did not require formal IRB approval. To be eligible for the study, dwellings had to be built before 1950, have one or more target weatherization activities planned, one or more painted windows and/or doors, and no children with elevated blood lead levels (above 15 micrograms per deciliter (?g/dL)) residing in the dwelling. Before studying any target activity, paint on components to be disturbed and studied was tested for lead using a portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrument. Only houses which had lead-based paint at 1.0 milligram per square centimeter (mg/cm2) or greater on one or more study-specified surfaces were eligible. To the extent possible, weatherization activities were conducted as they routinely would have been in the absence of the research study, and residents were not required to vacate homes during weatherization work or study data collection. For the dust-lead creation study, dust wipe samples were collected on floors at four stages: before worksite preparation (Stage 1), after the work but before removal of containment1 (Stage 2), after removal of containment (Stage 3), and after final cleanup (Stage 4). For two of the four dust creation activities (window repair and window replacement), dust samples from window sills and troughs were also collected before and after the activities were completed. For the dust dispersion study, dust wipe samples were taken from specified surfaces (e.g., floors and sills) before the dust dispersion activity and, after the activity was completed, from sheeting placed over each sample location.All samples were analyzed for total lead by a laboratory participating in the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency’s (EPA) National Lead LaboratoryAccreditation Program (NLLAP). A total of 58 dwellings were successfully enrolled.All enrolled dwellings had at least one tested component with lead-based paint (i.e., lead loading greater than or equal to 1 mg/cm2). Window components were the largest subset containing lead-based paint. The dust lead loadings set by EPA for abatement clearance with single-surface settled dust wipe samples at 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 745.227(e)(8)(viii) (EPA 2006) were considered to be the relevant comparison values for sample results in this report. These comparison values were 40 micrograms per square foot (?g/ft2) for floors, 250 ?g/ft2 for window sills, and 400 ?g/ft2 for window troughs. Compliance with EPA clearance standards is not technically required in weatherization work. Standards are presented in this report for comparison purposes only.