Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with lead

Purchasing an old home: lead water and air duct questions inside.

Wrongshanks — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:23:55 -0800

The home my wife and I are possibly about to purchase was built in 1900 and we have a few questions about aged systems and family safety. Lead water pipes and asbestos tape, oh my! My wife and I are about to purchase our first home. We've found one we like, and the inspection was just done today. The home was built in 1900 but has had a lot of updating, and while no major issues turned up, lots of minor ones did. The inspector was great, and offered good suggestions for how to fix the issues, but I'd like some further clarification from people who have gone through similar problems or who have knowledge in these areas, since neither of us are particularly knowledgeable or handy about this kind of stuff.

1. The water line running out to the street is made of lead. Forking out $5k to get it replaced isn't feasible, but the inspector said a filtration system, either at point of use (taps) or point of entry (water line) would be okay, or we could just flush the pipes every time we've let the water sit for more than 6 hours. I'm having a difficult time finding POE filters on the internet (I think I'm just not parsing this correctly), and I'm wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation, and if you've just gone with a tap-filter or taken a different approach. If anyone has a POE filtration system, any ballpark idea on how much it would cost?

2. While flushing the water before drinking (or filtering it) is necessary before consuming or cooking with it, what about showering or washing dishes? I haven't found any conclusive answers for this online.

3. Many of the air ducts in the basement are sealed with asbestos tape, much of which is peeling. The inspector recommended sealing all of this up (over the tape and all) with a product he referred to as "Duckmastic". Has anyone used this type of sealant, and what were the results?

We have a 9-month old baby and are planning on more children in the future. Would issues like these be a deal breaker? Our financial situation is fairly solid, though we are not well off. The house is in the low $60ks, and we are not in a major rush to move out of our rented house, but we really do like the house we've found.

Any insight or thoughts on all of this is greatly appreciated. This whole home-buying experience has been both frightening and fun, but words like "lead poisoning" and "asbestos carcinogens" keep running through my mind. I know a certain amount of issues like this are definitely going to be present in a house of this age, but I'd like a little insight into anyone with similar experiences.

Thanks in advance!

I rented a single-family house in MA. YANML, but I probably need one.

woodvine — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:12:26 -0800

I rented a single-family house in MA with 2 roommates. We have 2 toddlers. This house isn't deleaded, and it needs to be, and landlady is very unhappy about the expense. We offered to vacate the lease, but my now crazy landlady wants to keep the security deposit I put down. Help? (Stupid move #1) I signed a lease via email 2/28, on a single-family house in Somerville, MA, to begin tenancy March 1. I had seen the house about a month before and had noted some issues that the realtor assured me would be fixed.

We did a walk-through on 3/1, after signing the lease instead of before (stupid move #2), and after we made a list of the needed repairs to be added to the lease, I gave the realtor a certified check for a security deposit (stupid move #3). It was in an envelope, and I neglected to keep my copy (stupid move #4). [I tried to get the realtor to give me a receipt, but she refused. The lease says that I paid 1st month's rent; we have the landlady on a voicemail requesting through sobs to keep the security deposit, as well as an email from the landlady stating that she is willing to give me a receipt for the deposit.] My roommate did not have a check at the time of walk-through on 3/1, so we agreed to meet up to exchange the check for keys on 3/2.

My roommates (a couple) have a two-year-old daughter. I have a two-year-old son. On close inspection, the property clearly had not been deleaded. Roommate and I decide we want out of this lease. We request the check back. The landlady says, "No," which she is within her rights to do. She has the house lead inspected.

Last night, we received the results of the inspection. The house is FULL of lead paint and will cost a lot of money to fix. The landlady is now willing to let us out of the lease so that she doesn't have to have the place deleaded, but wants to keep my $2100 security deposit! Hell to the no.

Landlady has now cried on the phone with both my roommate and I, as well as into my roommate's voicemail. She is not emotionally stable or particularly reasonable (which is the main reason I wanted out of the lease in the first place. Stupid move #5, not meeting the landlady before signing the lease. Don't be like me).

So, I've sent her an email that basically says, "Here is the lead law. You can either a) vacate the lease and return my deposit or b) honor the lease and get the place deleaded ASAP."

Eeeek, it's awful to see all my stupid moves laid out like that. I really did not think this through. I figure that tomorrow I need to get a lawyer. Problem is, I really do not have lawyer money right now. What should I do? YANML, of course.

I certainly can't afford to let this woman keep my deposit, and if we honor this lease I will have a pissed-off, emotionally unstable landlady. So tips for dealing with that would be good also.

If your only answer is "lawyer," can you recommend one in the Boston area? Preferably one who won't charge me the entire contents of my bank account?

Recommendations for lead testing labs needed

ryanshepard — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 07:31:12 -0800

I need to test several pieces of furniture and some toys for lead paint, and want to have a lab confirm the home tests I plan to run. I need recommendations for reliable (and hopefully affordable, too) options.

How can my wife start networking for real estate leads?

mistermc — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:48:00 -0800

My wife is a new RE agent in the L.A. area and is looking for ways to meet people who may be interested in buying/selling a home. Does the community have any ideas on how she can go out and meet this group of people, network with them, and start to generate leads? Thanks.

Help me think through Lead in drinking water-- math, chemistry, biology

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 07:37:48 -0800

We're buying a house (still negotiating, hence the anonymity), and we have learned that the level of lead in the water is slightly above the expected range. Not knowing whether this is a big deal, I've tried to do some math to figure out whether being over the threshold is an object of legitimate concern (or whether the range is the fruit of a hyperactive regulatory state) and the process has led me to even more questions. The water test returned a level of 17ppb versus an "action level" of 15ppb. While not an order of magnitude over the limit (the old "action level" was ~3x the current reading, even) or anything, clearly this isn't ideal (and if we didn't have small children, I might even blissfully ignore it as "close enough" and go about my day) so I decided to perform some back-of-the-envelope math and subsequently I've begun to wonder whether this standard is too permissive. Please follow my math below:

A lead concentration of 15 parts per billion (I presume that the standard is set by volume) is roughly equivalent to 171 parts per billion by weight (lead is 11.4x as dense as water.)
A toddler drinks 1.3l of water per day, which weighs 2.86 lb. At 171 parts per billion of lead by weight, 2.86 lb of water contains .000008 ounces of lead. 365 days of this (with full retention) gets us to .0029oz, .08g,or 81,141 micrograms of lead.

Meanwhile, a healthy lead level for a toddler is 2 micrograms/deciliter of blood. Figure a toddler contains 10 deciliters of blood, and conclude that the bloodstream can safely can hold 20 micrograms.

Leading me to conclude that if the blood standards and the water standards are consistent, the permitted annual drinking intake is 4000x the permitted point-in-time blood content. Or I have misplaced a decimal point.

Now, I understand that lead isn't really metabolized and that it settles in the bones. So while I'm clearly over my head here (for starters, I'm comparing a stock and a flow), I'm not satisfied that 15ppb is safe and 17ppb is unsafe and I am rather alarmed. I wonder about the following:

1. I think I got all the conversions right. Did I?
2. Are either the water standard or the blood standard set with rigor? Or have the authorities simply designated some arbitrary percentile cutoffs?
3. Can the blood standard and the water standard be reconciled in a bottom-up fashion using known rates of lead metabolism and absorption? Or is it all top-down slicing?
4. By the time a child reaches 18 years of age, it's conceivable that despite never consuming "unsafe" water, he will have ingested 100,000x the weight of lead that his bloodstream can safely hold. It's quite alarming from a headline perspective (especially given all the "lead is really, really bad for kids" research generated over the past few years). If I knew what I was talking about, would I still be alarmed?

Removall or other eco-friendly paint removers for retail in Twin Citites?

longtime_lurker — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:27:16 -0800

Looking for a lead on Removall 220 available for retail in the Twin Cities area, or recommendations of equivalent (brushable, eco-friendly) paint strippers. Stripping by hand or with a sander has turned out to be dauntingly slow; we'd probably stick with it anyway, but my spouse is increasingly concerned about the hazard from lead dust. Removall sounds worth trying based on a recommendation on This Old House, but is turning out to be hard to track down. Thanks in advance for any info!

Is lead in reclaimed wood a concern?

allisonrae — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:05:11 -0800

Husband bought large paintings made with reclaimed barn wood. I swabbed them and they tested positive for lead. We have a new-ish baby. How big of a deal is this? I'll start by saying that the last couple years I got really caught up following stories about flame retardants, BPA, etc. Pregnancy really exacerbated it. This year I've been actively working at chilling out and realizing that some things are just out of my control. I feel that I've been somewhat successful, and being too busy with a baby to spend time online reading one alarmist story after another has really helped. I'm sure I was driving my husband crazy and I'm happier for it too.

That said, I did give in to a suspicion the other day. I used a lead test swab to check the painting in the living room that's made of reclaimed barn wood. About 10% of the piece contains old wood strips with varying degrees of old white paint. It is degraded paint, to the degree that running a fingernail over it would scrape some off, but it is not actively flaking off on its own. I got conclusive red positives. And now I can't stop thinking about it.

When I brought up the possibility of lead content in these paintings a couple months ago, my husband got very upset and asked rhetorically if I had ever played near a barn as a kid. We both grew up with plenty of time in rural areas, so of course I had. I also think about how much less cautious everyone was when we were kids in the 70s/80s – the whole "well, we turned out fine!" thing. We also live in an old (1906) house. But my instinct is that having a known source of lead paint in the living room, next to the kitchen bar, in a house filled with kids, is a Really Bad Thing.

Can anyone help me separate the alarmism from the reality? As long as we keep the kids away from the paintings will it be fine? Or do we need to do something about this, like yesterday? Thanks!

Where can I find lead-free etched crystal glasses?

2legit2quit — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:32:19 -0800

Where can I find lead-free etched crystal glasses? After noting that all of our crystal came in boxes with warnings about the lead content, we returned all of our wine and drink glasses and are now having difficulty finding glassware that is equally nice looking without have lead in it.

Without a major discussion on the true risks of leaded crystal-ware, can anyone please point us in the direction of some etched or otherwise nice looking crystal glasses (wine, high balls, drinking) that are not made with leaded crystal?

Huge bonus points if carried by Macy's or Belk!

Have we poisoned our baby?

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:41:31 -0800

We cluelessly fed our 4-month old baby three or four 4-oz bottles of formula made with lukewarm water from the tap over the last 7 days. Should we have her tested for lead? It occurred to my wife that it might not be a good idea, so she googled it, and as it turns out, it's widely accepted as a terrible idea. I can't believe I didn't know this or hear it at some point, but there you go. I am ashamed.

So anyway, have we done irreversible damage? Should we do anything about it? She normally breastfeeds but her hunger the last few days has exceeded supply so we've been (and probably will continue, with store-bought water) supplementing with a bit of powdered Similac.

House is a 50-year-old block stucco beater in the Southwest, pipes appear to be soldered copper. I wouldn't be surprised if there had at some point been lead paint on the walls, though they've had a few coats in the post-lead paint era as the house was once a rental.

Affordable, high-quality HEPA vacuums?

ryanshepard — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:04:43 -0800

Recommendations for an affordable, high-quality HEPA vacuum cleaner? We may need to buy a HEPA vacuum to deal with lead dust in our house, and need recommendations for high-quality - and hopefully not break-the-bank expensive - models.

Lead dust elimination basics

ClaudiaCenter — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 11:02:55 -0800

Lead dust contaminated apartment. We recently (yesterday) learned that our apartment is contaminated with high levels of lead dust due to recent unsafe renovation work by our new landlords.

The local public agency which did the testing has ordered the landlord to immediately hire a lead-certified contractor to clean our apartment. After the cleaning the agency will re-test and order more remediation if the lead is not gone.

We are working to get our blood lead level testing done on Monday, and will cooperate in the cleaning of course. We are just wondering what to expect and how to handle the remediation --

What is the experience of having a lead dust elimination cleaning contractor in one's living space?

What do we do with our clothes and bedding -- is washing them sufficient? Books? Dishes? Dog beds? Other possessions?

The contamination is throughout our living space. We are considering moving out until the cleaning is done but with three adults, two dogs, and one cat, that's a bit overwhelming. We are always careful with food preparation and we wash our hands frequently, and are taking more care than ever now.

(One of our neighbors in the building has a child and moved out yesterday due to the lead levels.)

Signed,

the toxic-i-fied 99 percent

Why would one want a Nord Lead 3 as opposed to a Nord Lead 2 or 2X?

telomere — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:45:11 -0800

Why would one want a Nord Lead 3 as opposed to a Nord Lead 2 or 2X? I know that the original Nord Lead was completely outmoded by the 2 but since I don't currently know anyone who knows synths, I'm not sure if the 2x and 3 are improvements over the 2 and in what ways. If you guys know the answer or could point me to a forum or resource that might, I would love that. In fact, I'd love to know of good sites to talk about synthesizer programming in general as it's been about a billion years since I've done it and I'm sure I'll have as many questions once I get my hands on one.

Thanks!

Grind down our lead painted windows?

crabintheocean — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:03:54 -0800

Conflicting problems with both non-closing windows and likely lead paint in a Los Angeles rental. Maintenance plan to grind them all down later this week and I'm pregnant and worried about the dust. I would deeply appreciate some advice on how this might play out and how to handle it (yes, not legal advice) especially advice from those who know about California and LA rental issues. We rent in LA and complained (yet again) to our landlord and apartment manager about the insecurity of our huge bank of ground-level street-facing windows after the other first floor apartment was robbed through a window! They're steel frame windows with a crank to close and a lever to lock, neither of which really work, in a building that's probably from 1960. These are windows that can be quickly and silently opened from the outside by grabbing and rocking them, and we have complained repeatedly for the several years we've been here, but the best fix we've ever gotten has been some twisted wire. Obviously after the break-in this can't go on.

Today the landlord sent a maintenance guy to look at the windows. Later we got a call from the apartment manager saying that they would come in to fix them on Friday and they would fix them by grinding them down.

Oh dear. These windows are from the 1950's or 1960's and they have layer over layer of oil based paint on them. I am certain the lower layers are full of lead. I am seven months pregnant and would like a healthy baby without cognitive impairment if possible. Maintenance in this block is never done cleanly or so far as we can tell with adherence to regulations, and we are never able to ask anyone doing the work what chemicals they are using or what they plan on doing (we rarely see the same person twice and none of them are able to really communicate with us because we don't speak Spanish and they don't speak English).

We called the apartment manager back to ask her (nicely) about lead and express our concerns. She was as rude as she always is, and told us that it's impossible that there's lead paint because it has been illegal to use since the 1970's, then she agreed to ask the owner (who owns several buildings and is generally medium-professional) and get back to us.

What should we do and what is likely to happen to us? Can we trust what they tell us? Should we get our own test kit, am I right to be concerned that this is a hazard? If we insist they fix the windows AND follow safe lead procedures (which I'm not familiar with but a quick Google suggests are complicated) I'm worried it will be a huge fight and we'll have to find somewhere else to live - we're not under lease and we're moving long distance next year so we can't sign a year lease anywhere else. We are also very settled here, can't afford to move twice in a year, and it's generally a great apartment.

Concerned parent worries about lead in varnish

dance — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:29:07 -0800

I've recently ordered a lead testing kit and found lead in the varnish on my child's 'antique' cot (we replaced with a modern one within 24hrs). I am concerned, though, about the lead in the varnish on our table and chairs.

Family and friends are convinced that this is not a threat because it's not off gassing that's a problem it's the child ingesting chips of paint containing lead, which isn't quite possible with varnished wood. However, my son, at 9 months, whilst not a "sucky" baby is definitely in daily contact with these chairs as he moves about the room and climbs in between them and is bound to give them a suck at sone point.

I'm expecting reactions from "get rid of them now" (approaching my own wishes!) to "I wouldn't worry". What I'm looking for is the general feeling!

Thank you.

Could my protein powder be poisoning me?

entropicamericana — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:57:55 -0800

Should I be worried about my protein supplement? Should I give it up? What are some good alternatives? I'm getting back into working out and taking care of myself after a few years and I stumbled across this article from a July 2010 Consumer Reports. I somehow missed this when it was news and any fallout that might have resulted.

I bought some protein powder from Costco in 2010 that I'm pretty sure is EAS (I discarded the original packaging). Their liquid drink is listed as one of the worst offenders, but the powder is not on the chart. I don't know if it was tested.

What is the consensus on protein powder in light of this article? I'm sure regulations haven't changed. I've seen some people questioning their methods. Judging from the amount of AskMe questions about protein powder since then, it is either isn't a concern for most people or they haven't read the article.

My fitness routine involves weightlifting and plenty of protein; I'm spoiled by the convenience of protein powder in smoothies and shakes. Should I just resign myself to whole foods (pricier, slower) or what?

Getting the Lead Out

tau_ceti — Thu, 26 May 2011 10:23:54 -0800

We just got back soil test results for our new garden, and the lead levels are unfortunately pretty high (around 800 ppm). Now what? We obviously should have tested the soil *before* starting the garden, but we now have a variety of plants growing out there, and we're not sure how concerned we should be about eating them. The research I've done has said anything from "Just wash them thoroughly" to "Don't garden if the lead is above 300 ppm". Should we kill the garden and start over with raised beds, or just eat what we have, or...?

I should note that the soils have already been remediated somewhat, and they are slightly alkaline, which is supposed to bind the lead and keep it unavailable to plants. Also, no children will be eating the food.

Lead in the dirt?

furnace.heart — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:29:24 -0800

Is there really a garden-ban in Portland, Maine because of lead in the soil? I recently heard that Portland, ME has a gardening ban for edible fruits and vegetables because of high-levels of lead in the soil...

Unfortunately, my google-skills are coming up with nothing but fairly paranoid sounding blogs convinced of everything giving their children autism...I'm trying to find something a bit more balanced.

Is this true? If so how on earth did this happen and what area around the city is considered 'contaminated'? Is this common in the Northeast, or is it a unique thing to Portland?

Seattle area battery dealers, DC UPS

thewalrus — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:56:24 -0800

Seattle area telecom: Can anyone suggest a battery distributor/warehouse that stocks deep cycle lead acid batteries of the type suitable for a DC UPS? Shipping costs on these are very high so we would prefer to buy from a dealer somewhere along I-5 in the area from Bellingham to Olympia. We're looking for 6V 220aH T105 (golfcart type) and AGM 12V 120aH batteries.

Cleaning up lead paint

Chicken Boolean — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:26:45 -0800

My house has lead paint. Today most of the windows were replaced, and the people who installed them were supposed to vacuum up the lead paint chips. I don't think they did. What should I do? The old window frames were removed basically by smashing them, with most of the wood-and-paint pieces landing outside. The guys who did it (their company also tested for lead paint) said they would vacuum the inside when they were done to clean it up. But when I came home, I saw what looked like some flakes of white paint, not to mention the same dust and bits of paper, etc. that were there before they started.

Two questions:

1. I have no idea how this works, so is it reasonable to assume that these guys didn't vacuum, or didn't do it well enough?

2. How should I clean this up? I could just vaccuum it myself right now, but I've heard that for some toxic materials (e.g. broken mercury lightbulb) you should avoid vacuuming because that just spreads it around and makes it worse.

I hope this isn't a really serious problem, because I have to live here while (and before) it gets cleaned up.

Contacting terrorist individuals in Rome, Italy?

SollosQ — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:33:41 -0800

It appears I will be spending five days in Rome, Italy around March 14-18. The trip itself is for undergraduate research and a short overseas experience. I will be giving a 50 minute presentation on my return. The experience is the primary reason for the trip, with most if not all the research being done beforehand.

Though it is far off, I want to get some preparations started. My research will revolve around the "Years of Lead" in Italy, specifically the armed leftist organizations that came about. Some of these groups seem to still exist, albeit in temporally-altered ways, such as the Red Brigade/Brigate Rosse. Others seem to have fully disbanded such as Prima Linea. What I would like to do is get into contact with people who have participated or are currently participating within these terrorist groups.

I'm doing this for research, as a student. Everything will be collected anonymously for academic purposes. I'm in the process of getting in touch with relevant professors and any contacts I have in Italy as a supplement and backup, but I was curious if there was any hope in achieving my wishes from the second paragraph. Might these current terrorist organizations have a civilian front-end I could get into contact with?

Should we treat paint with detectable but legally acceptable levels of lead as lead paint when repainting?

nequalsone — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:31:42 -0800

What precautions do we need to take in painting a house with paint that is mostly below (but some above) the legal definition of lead paint? Is the legal definition meaningful? My wife and I bought a house last year. As the house was built in the 1920s, we expected it would have lead paint. We had an inspector come in and use x-ray fluorescence to detect the presence and levels of lead paint. The test showed about 15 surfaces out of about 115 tested met the legal definition of lead paint--1.0 or more mg/cm² lead. The paint is generally well-maintained, but we want to repaint for aesthetic reasons. We will be doing this work ourselves.

The question is: How careful do we need to be about renovation procedures (ie, sanding) on surfaces that are below the legal threshold yet have measurable amounts of lead? Many of the rooms have a series of readings like 0.0, 0.3, 0.3, 0.1, 0.4, 0.7, 0.3. Will sanding these surfaces produce dangerous levels of lead dust? Very little sanding will be required to repaint. Would holding a vacuum up to the surface while sanding be sufficient? Do we need to buy a HEPA vac? Should we follow the new guidelines for contractors working with lead paint: cordoning off rooms with plastic, covering the floors and all furniture with plastic, no sanding or scraping without hooded tools, total airflow control, disposable clothing and respirators?

The underlying question is how to interpret these various levels. Is 1.0 a meaningful cut-off? Is 0.3 mg/cm² just the normal amount of lead that is in the environment? Or does it mean there is lead paint but not as bad as some lead paint? How bad is "not as bad?" Is 0.3 mg/cm² going to give us a one-third case of lead poisoning? Will 0.5 produce lead poisoning only in the left hemisphere of our bodies? 50% chance of lead poisoning?

It bears noting that we have a toddler living in the house with us. I would rather be safe than sorry, but not sure if this level of care is needed since these surfaces do technically fall under the legal limit...

Strong female in Mystery/Suspense Books

roxiesmom — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:58:33 -0800

Strong female lead in Mystery Books I recently started reading J.D. Robb in "Death Series" and have read "Women's Murder Club series". I am looking for other mystery/suspense books that have a strong female lead character.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Getting the lead out

estlin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:13:21 -0800

Please help me with my science fair project. I'm exploring safe ways to remove lead from contaminated soil. One of the techniques I want to use is electrokinetic remediation. From the research I've done, I understand that passing an electric current through the soil should separate lead particles. However, the only diagrams I've been able to find look like this and I don't understand what's going on there.

So if I want to build something simple to test this out, how do I go about doing so? I get a pot of soil with lead mixed throughout ... and then?

What is this lead ring?

tellurian — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:17:20 -0800

In this excerpt from Beloved Son Felix, there is a description of a body that they have disinterred for an autopsy. They find a lead ring which causes disgust. What would the lead ring be? The relevant part:

On opening the winding sheet in which the body was sewn, we found a woman with a congenital deformity of the legs, the two feet turned inward. We did an autopsy and found, among other curiosities, various veins vasorum spermaticorum, which were not deformed, but followed the curve of the legs toward the buttocks. She had a lead ring, and as I detest these, it added to my disgust.

Surely not a lead ring on her finger, that wouldn't cause such detestation, would it? Could it be that it was some sort of device she wore because she had deformed legs?

Lead testing next steps

Lazlo Hollyfeld — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:59:23 -0800

My wife and I recently had some lead testing done in our apartment which turned up some very high levels. Now we are trying to figure out what to do next. Issues involving lead testing, abatement, leases and tenancy inside. My family (myself, my wife and our 18 month old daughter) moved into our current apartment in New Haven, Connecticut, in the beginning of June. When we looked at the place we were happy with condition it was in, as the paint seemed new and in good condition. On moving in we noticed that there was some old, chipping paint in the window beds. Last week we had some unofficial testing done by a local lead abatement company. We had done the same thing in our previous apartment, and gotten back borderline levels. We got the results for our new apartment back yesterday and the levels are very high, as in 10-50 times the acceptable limit. The soil in the backyard tests at 4x the limit.

My understanding of CT state law is that if we have an official inspection done and their findings match ours, the landlords are responsible for the lead abatement. My wife spoke to an inspector from the New Haven DPH, who confirmed this, but could not give us much guidance as to how long, difficult or expensive the abatement process might be. We brought this all up with our landlords and they expressed a desire to not go through official channels and maybe have some cleanup done off the record. Our landlords are an older couple who are very sweet and well intentioned, but we don't really trust their ability to deal with the cleanup on their own.

The way I see it, our options are either to get an official inspection and start the process of getting the lead cleaned up, or to move out and find somewhere else to live. Since we would need to vacate at least ourselves and maybe our stuff during the abatement process, and going the official route wouldn't put us on good terms with the landlords, we're currently inclined to go the "move out" route.

This would involve breaking our lease which lasts for another 10 months. Our landlords are not particularly computer savvy, so they have asked if we would do the work of listing and showing the place, which is fine. Our main concern is that if we can't find someone to move in by the time we move out that they will try to hold us responsible for the rent. We would like to get something in writing from them officially breaking the lease.

So the question is, is this a situation where we need a lawyer? If we destroy both copies of the lease, is that good enough? Are there other factors or options that we haven't thought of?

Just as a note, today was our daughter's 18 month checkup and we had her blood tested. We should know the results early next week, but since we've been here such a short time I expect that every thing is ok. Also, when we look at new apartments, we plan on testing before we sign a lease.