Assessing lead contamination in properties

Date: 7 Nov 2018
Author: Hill Laboratories

Lead is a known environmental contaminant that has been shown to affect human health. Lead contamination has been discussed at industry conferences and in webinars on numerous occasions this year and it appears that it will continue to be a topic of interest for the near future. Hill Laboratories are able to meet this need by offering lead testing on the following sample types: soil, dust and paint samples.

Children are particularly sensitive to elevated lead exposure with their cognitive abilities suffering. Lead is most likely to be present in residential houses because of residues from lead-based paint, which was widely used on properties prior to 1965 and was still found in paint used up until the 1980’s. When renovating properties that have been painted, recent layers of old lead based paint may still be present covered with modern paint. Lead can also be found in the soil around your property from lead based paint that has flaked off or entered the soil during renovations.

Guidelines are available from National Environmental Standards and BioGro for lead level in soils, and Worksafe and Ministry of Health for lead levels in paint and dust. Our results are reported in units that can be compared to the guideline values.