Truths behind the Lies

Lately I feel I have been living a dream.  A dream where water fountains in schools are safe, family members do not steal from each other, government regulations are enacted to protect you, politicians are as honest as they proclaim and Bill Cosby is the ideal father figure.  Boy, have I had a wakeup call – and so has our country.

Last month I heard on the news that Tacoma schools found lead in the drinking fountains.  Seattle Public Utilities immediately said that there was nothing wrong with Seattle drinking water ‘but that all residents should run their water for two minutes before drinking it JUST IN CASE’ (emphasis added).  It turns out that the ‘gooseneck’ fittings are corroding, where there are gooseneck fittings there is lead. 

The TRUTH is, there are many opportunities for LEAD to enter your drinking water and each home/building is unique in its potential liabilities.  Has anyone suggested that it may be in the publics self-interest to test their water at each faucet?  NO, that would cost too much money and the public outcry when they found out how many of their faucets produced water with lead in it would be crazy.  Politicians may lose their jobs!  Let me ask, how many of you run your water 2 minutes before drinking it?

The TRUTH is, that in 1978 the EPA determined the Lead in the paint was extremely dangerous and made it illegal to sell (after 1978).  But did anyone TELL the PUBLIC that every time you hammered a nail into the wall to hang a picture you were exposing yourself and your family to lead poisoning?  (Remember even the smallest minute amount of dust with lead poisoning can cause permanent brain damage in children).   NO, the government waited until 2010, 32 years, to regulate/protect the public from remodeling produced lead poisoning.  Have you hung a picture up in your home in the last 32 years?

The TRUTH is that I do not believe anyone any more, and that is a very sad place to be.  Truthfully, Christine

Lead Solutions

What are we doing about LEAD in our homes?  These are the solutions that I am incorporating into my home and into the homes of my clients:

SAFE Drinking Water:  The testing of Drinking water is now a standard benefit of every kitchen and bath design that I work on.

HEALTHY Drinking Water:  I have researched and obtained (for my clients) RETTIN Tyent Ionized Water Filters which remove 100% of all LEAD and mercury in the water as well as pesticides, VOC's semi-VOC's, herbicide, disinfectants and non-metallic contaminants, and pharmaceutical contaminants.  This Ionizer has the ability to create Alkaline water (up to 10.0 ph) which has extreme health benefits. It can also create Acid water used for disinfecting and cleaning.  All of this is done through electricity, there are no additives involved.  We are installing these at kitchen sinks and bar sinks; anywhere you would go for drinking water.

LEAD Pipes and Solder:  As we design/remodel, we put into action replacing all lead pipes and all copper pipes that used lead solder.

LEAD in our paint:  IT IS THE LAW (Toxic Substances Control Act section 402(c)(3)), that all firms working in pre-1978 homes and child-occupied facilities must be certified and use lead-safe work practices during renovations.  I am personally trained and certified, and my company, Christine Suzuki Installations Inc is certified as well.  (since 2010)  The intent of this specific training is to contain any chips of paint and lead DUST.  Dust is generally a healthy hazard even if it is not poisonous (as in lead.)  So our SUPER SAFE DUST FREE PRACTICES are generally very good for your family's health safety and welfare.

Please contact me if you have any concerns about the LEAD in your home, we are committed to providing healthy non toxic interiors to all of our friends family and customers.

Namaste, Christine

Politics Poisoning & Prevention

Lead in your Home

We’ve known the health effects of lead poisoning for a long time and now know that there is NO safe threshold for lead exposure.  Because of political pressure, many countries, cities and states have allowed and sometimes mandated that lead pipes be utilized for water distribution, that lead be added into gasoline, and have allowed lead based paints into homes.  These products/installations are now illegal. HOWEVER, these lead pipes, lead solder connecting copper pipes, and lead based paints are STILL in our homes, potentially poisoning ourselves, our children and grandchildren.  The information on lead poisoning is so vast that I am presenting only statements and quotations in a timeline fashion with references for your research.

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica pictorum, saturnism or painter’s colic) first written about by the Egyptians is said to have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire.  *6

1850 Scientists began fingering water pipes as the source of a growing number of lead poisoning cases. *9

1866 New York Herald published the article “The Dangers of Lead Pipes” #9

1900-1920 Homes built in this period usually have lead based pipes *1

1910-20 When municipalities began banning the use of lead pipes in the 1910s and 1920s, other sources of lead poisoning – paint, for example – also came under scrutiny.  In response, the lead industry fought back.  The National Lead Company ran ads proclaiming that ‘lead helps to guard your health’ *9

1920 Environmental pollution by lead caused by the introduction of tetraethyl lead in gasoline became an alarming public health problem.  The use became restricted in the 1980’s:  its effects on blood lead levels are now evident. *6

1921 the International Labour Conference organized a meeting in Geneva to adopt the White Lead Convention.  The convention led to the prohibition of the use of white lead in indoor painting in the several countries…Sweden and Czechoslovakia…Austria, Poland and Spain…Finland and Norway. In the United States, the Lead Industries Association succeeded in blocking the signing of the ILO convention. *6 

1921 Surgeon General convened a meeting when 8 workers died in straitjackets from dramatic central nervous system involvement from tetraethyl lead poisoning. *6

1928 To maintain sales of lead pipe, the LIA (Lead Industry Association) lobbied the government at all levels and targeted the people who both designed and installed water distribution systems with outreach and educational material and other resources.  The association carried on its promotional campaign into the 1970’s *10

1928 LIA’s Plumbing Promotion Program succeeded in Massachusetts where bans on certain kinds of lead pipe were lifted, in Pennsylvania lead pipe was formally required by the plumbing code to the exclusion of alternatives.  The LIA even managed to have lead pipes inserted into regulations governing federal construction projects, as well as building codes and building specifications. *9

1950 Federal guidelines and specifications sanctioned lead pipes into the 1950s

1920-1965 Homes built in 1920-1965 generally have galvanized plumbing *1

1960 when artificial softening of drinking water began,   lead began to dissolve from the pipes.*6

1965-1980 These homes are considered risky if they were built between 1965 and 1980 when copper pipes and lead-based solder were common place in plumbing *1

1970 LIA (Lead Industry Association) lobbied the government at all levels into the 1970s. *10

1970 Only four US states and 10 municipalities had laws or ordinances prohibiting indoor use of lead paint.  In 1970 it was estimated that the annual incidence of symptomatic and asymptomatic lead poisoning in the U.S was as high as 240,000 cases.*6

1970-1980 National model plumbing codes APPROVED LEAD into the 1970s and 1980s and most water systems based their regulations on those codes.  During this time period there were more than 22 million new homes built in the United States *1  The primary source for lead in most drinking water sources is the piping used within a distribution system or the household plumbing…YOUR household plumbing may be the cause for lead in your drinking water.*4

1978 World Health Organization convened an expert meeting to scrutinize the present knowledge on lead, mercury and cadmium, creating a booklet called “Recommended Health-Based Limits in Occupational Exposure to Heavy Metals.”  The WHO officers who were involved in editing the document have privately stated that industry representatives lobbied heavily, both in the WHO and in the then CEC Health Protectorate, to prevent the publication.  These activities delayed the publication of the report and degraded it to a “technical report.” *6

1978 Federal government banned the use of lead based paint. 

1980 Seattle banned lead-based plumbing materials *1

1980 Nearly all homes built prior to the 1980s still have lead solder connecting copper pipes. *8

1984 EPA conducted a survey of 153 public water systems finding that 73% had installed lead service lines (a service line is the pipe from the street to your house) *10

1985 King County banned lead-based plumbing materials *1

1986 passage of Safe Drinking Water Act prohibited installation of lead water pipes.

1987 Washington State banned lead-based plumbing materials*1

1990 In the US practically no leaded gasoline was sold after 1990. *6

1990 Testing of children with lead poisoning showed a decrease in IQ of 6 points leading some scientists to suggest that slipping school performance in the US to a large extent can be attributed to past subclinical childhood lead poisoning. *6

1997 Seattle Public Utilities random sampling found 90% of houses came back with lead levels at nearly 20ppb

1997 CDC  estimates that as many as 5% of all American children suffer from subclinical lead poisoning. *7

2001 Seattle began adding soda ash meant to reduce most of the lead leaching from problem pipes. *1

2003 20% of all lead exposure in young children comes from drinking water *7

2004 Seattle Public Schools find high levels of lead in the drinking fountains *1

2004 Plumbing in many city homes poses lead risk.  *1

2004 EPA’s standard for lead contamination of drinking water is ZERO.*1   There is NO safe level for lead exposure *4   Standard for immediate action is 15 ppb. *1

2010 EPA RRP (Renovation Repair & Painting) ruling came into effect penalizing residential contractors up to $35,000 per incident if work done on homes older than 1978 is not within the RRP guidelines.  This ruling is to attempt to protect residents, owners, and workers from lead poisoning from lead based paint.  A minute amount of lead dust can cause lead poisoning. EG, Nailing a picture hanger into the wall could cause lead poisoning.

2014 PRIOR to 2014 the legal definition for “lead free” was plumbing fixtures with a lead content of less than 8%.  In 2014, the term was redefined to include only fixtures with a lead content of .25% and newly installed fixtures must use the “lead free” materials, but this did not apply to fixtures currently in use. *4

2016 EPA considering a more ‘proactive approach’ to replacing lead pipes. *2

2016 Some major US cities still have 100 percent lead piping bringing water from the utilities to homes and businesses. *8

2016  Hundreds of tons of the lead in paint that covered the walls of houses, apartment buildings and workplaces across the United States remains in place almost four decades later…*2

2016 EPA officials addressing Plumbing Manufacturers International said that the EPA has reason to believe that faucets are being imported into the U.S. that contain lead in excess of the SDWA requirements of 11 parts per billion. *8

It is a shame if action is not taken when all the ingredients for successful prevention exist.  *6

Be Safe, Christine

*1 Candace Heckman, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter

*2 Arthur Delaney Huffpost

*3 Wikipedia

*4 Brian Oram PG, Special report #3, http://www.water-research.net/index.php/lead

*5 Alexandra Ossola

*6 Sven Hernberg, MD PHD

*7 Werner Troesken & Patricia E Beeson

*8 PMI Plumbing Manufacturers International https://www.safeplumbing.org/health-safety/lead-in-plumbing

*9 Stephen Mihm smihm1@bloomberg.net

*10 Richard Rabin, MSPH  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2509614/

Your Body is Your House

Toxins in our homes have been in discussion for several years.   LEAD based paint is most certainly in 70% of the homes in Seattle (all homes built before 1978 are suspect).  Even if the layer of lead based paint is five layers down, you are in danger of lead poisoning.  When would you disturb a layer that old?  When you remodel!  Toxins enter the body either through our lungs or by accidental eating (a microgram of lead dust is enough to cause lead poisoning.)   Do your children or grandchildren play with or suck on car keys?  Keys contain lead.  Even handling your keys and eating finger food can deliver a significant amount of lead into your mouth.  The dangers of lead poisoning are many.  LEAD is a highly toxic metal that can profoundly suppress immunity.  Lead poses significant health risk for adults but are particularly dangerous for children causing damage to the brain and central nervous system, can cause decreased intelligence, reading and learning difficulties, behavioral problems and hyperactivity.  This damage can be irreversible, affecting children throughout their lives.

The bottom line is that your house can be dangerous to your health.  The double bottom line is that some of the items we purposely put in our body also contain lead.  Things like…hmm… Vitamin supplements! 

Surprisingly, one of the biggest sources of lead in your life (assuming you are not remodeling a home built before 1978) may be your nutritional supplements.  Lead contamination in calcium supplements has been a significant problem, even though an FDA warning on this issue was published in 1981.****  Since then, studies have confirmed that many forms of calcium still contain lead in amounts that exceed EPA safety guidelines.  Since many people (including children) are taking large doses of calcium, this is a matter of concern.  Supplements that we TRUST to put in our body may be making us SICK.  In 1993 researchers tested 70 brands of calcium supplements and found high levels of LEAD in a significant percentage.

How can you tell if your supplement contains high amounts of lead?  Ask for ‘certified heavy-metal assay’ from the manufacturer.  If they can’t give it to you switch to a company that will.

This sounds nuts but the truth is that there are different levels of QUALITY in vitamins and nutritional supplements.  They are not all alike.  Stephen Cherniske, CSO of Univera remarks, 'The bottle that says Calcium is not the same as the bottle next to it that says Calcium.  We exasperate the problem because we want ‘good deals’ and look for the cheapest brand at the cheapest price.  Is that the way to make sure you put healthy supplements into your body?  NO!  Think about it, if it takes more time to keep toxins out, if it costs more money for research to show the benefits of a product, if it costs more money to purchase purer base materials, then it will cost more.' 

Why would companies knowingly produce and sell low quality products with high levels of LEAD to the general public?  Because THEY CAN, and they are betting that you will buy it.

Painting your bedroom for health & wellness

We spend 6-8 hours a day sleeping in our bedrooms.  What we are surrounded by, what we breathe, touch, see and feel, all affects our health and well being.  Many of us are blissfully unaware of the chemicals in the backing of our carpet, the VOC's in the paint on our walls, or the toxins in our bed covers.  Many of us are also unaware of the HEALTH BENEFITS of painting your bedroom.

1)  Specific colors/color frequencies can help relax your body, reduce tension, lower blood pressure.

2)  Paint with zero VOC's is good for your health.  The alternative being paint with VOC's (VOCs are volatile organic compounds, which are chemicals that off-gas into the air and into your lungs.  Yes, they are bad for your health.)

3)  Painters that are EPA Certified Renovators know how to provide the extra care needed to keep the dust and related particles contained and away from your loved ones and pets.  (This includes lead dust from lead paint that might be on a layer of paint on your home that is older than 1978)

Of course, I cannot flaunt this information without offering a package deal for the Valentines day month of February!  FEBRUARY SPECIAL:  Professional color CONSULTATION, zero-VOC PAINT, and professional EPA certified Painters to paint your bedroom for only $400.  Call or email me for more information! 206-517-4424 (Restrictions apply, projects must be scheduled by Feb 28, 2011 to qualify for this offer.)