News
October 24, 2007 - Homax LeadCheck Response to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Press Release
BELLINGHAM, WA, October 24, 2007 – The CPSC issued a report this week making the claim that home lead test kits for the testing of consumer products were unreliable.
Consumer Reports, on the contrary, posted the news on its website, stating: “Three of the five home lead-testing kits we tested at Consumer Reports were useful though limited screening tools if you are worried about specific items in your home. The kits detect surface, or “accessible,” lead. They don’t detect lead embedded below the surface. If an item tests positive, remove it from use. For exact lead levels, have it screened professionally.” Consumer Reports then specifically mentions LeadCheck with this: “They were the easiest to use and identified accessible lead in toys, ceramic dishware, and vinyl or plastic.”
The CPSC did not indicate that LeadCheck was included in their study. There are brands of lead test kits from other manufacturers that, due to the technology employed, can result in less accurate and unreliable results - as was found in the CPSC study.
Results of testing differing brands employing differing technologies should not be inferred to the accuracy of LeadCheck brand swabs. Consumers and professional health care workers alike have used LeadCheck for over 15 years, identifying real lead problems in homes and helping consumers be aware of the risks of childhood lead poisoning.
In 1997, LeadCheck encouraged parents to check their children’s toys for lead using LeadCheck. Many consumers have used LeadCheck to make their home a safer place including Marilyn Furer, the grandmother from Illinois who last May used LeadCheck on her grandson’s bib. Marilyn wrote us after she saw the CPSC bulletin and had this to say: “A home lead test picked up the lead on the vinyl bibs. It certainly worked well enough to prevent ruining my grandson's life.”
At a time when millions of consumer products have been found in the US to contain lead, LeadCheck, while not a replacement for quantitative lab testing, is a product that enables consumers to become active in screening their homes and can help them identify real lead hazards.
When used according to directions, LeadCheck provides the consumer with up to four tests with instant results for under $10. LeadCheck has been responsible for finding lead in the home and in surfaces such as paint, ceramics, plastic mini-blinds, and toys for the last 15 years. Without LeadCheck, these sources of lead would have been undetected and children exposed to potentially dangerous levels of poisonous lead.
The CPSC’s report mentions false readings they experienced with consumer test kits. Other consumer lead test kits have a limited shelf life and use of these kits can result in false readings. LeadCheck’s patented technology makes it the only home lead testing kit on the market that has no shelf life, as its components are NOT pre-activated. LeadCheck has two glass ampules that are activated immediately before use, ensuring high sensitivity and accurate readings.
The CPSC testing listed several cases of false positive readings (inaccurate reading of lead being present when none exists). Depending upon the surface being tested, if the instructions are carefully followed, there can be no false positives when using LeadCheck. The CPSC report also indicates that kits tested in their study resulted in a high number of false negative readings (inaccurate reading of lead NOT being present when it exists) – especially when testing lead-containing products that were covered in a non-lead containing surface. A false negative is possible with LeadCheck if the consumer has not followed the kit’s directions.
To receive accurate readings, the surface being tested must be properly prepared: it needs to be thoroughly cleaned and if it has a non-lead coating, scratched or notched to reveal the surface below. Within the CPSC study, there is no mention that these steps were followed during their testing of the kits.
The sensitivity of LeadCheck Swabs depends on the nature of the test object and the nature of the lead compound in the test object. For instance, if ceramics are being tested and the surface is clean, LeadCheck swabs can detect as low as 0.3 ppm. The CPSC report said that most test kits were developed to detect levels of lead in household paint that are usually much higher than CPSC's regulatory maximum level of 0.06%. However, LeadCheck’s lowest detectable level is approximately 600 ppm (0.06% weight/weight) or the same level as the CPSC regulatory maximum.
In many studies conducted over the past 15 years, LeadCheck has demonstrated consistent results in the field and has a history of accurate results in independent and government studies. For instance in 1993, the EMG Group tested 400 homes with LeadCheck Swabs and AA Laboratory tests on paint chips taken from the same sites where LeadCheck tests were performed. They found “absolutely consistent results” both positive and negative with LeadCheck Swabs and lab test results. In 1995, in a Field Test of Lead-based Paint Testing Technologies: Summary and Technical Report – (EPA 747 R-95-002a&b) they had this to say about LeadCheck: “Clearly, these MRI-Quan Tech “operating characteristic curves” demonstrate that LeadCheck Swabs perform reliably and accurately to detect lead paint hazards.”
Any test has some margin of error – if a toy is repeatedly in a child’s mouth, a second screening test would be prudent and lab testing recommended. LeadCheck is not a quantitative lead-test but rather a preliminary screening test and is NOT a substitute for a parent’s common sense. LeadCheck should be used in conjunction with periodic blood testing and definitive lab testing for a child’s favorite toy.
The CPSC’s press release this week only recommends using a qualified lead testing lab to test consumer products. It does not acknowledge however, that it is unrealistic for most households to follow its recommendation to send household goods to a laboratory for lead testing.
LeadCheck is a simple, effective, inexpensive, and field proven screening test that enables the consumer to become actively involved in identifying and removing lead hazards from the home.
For more information, please contact Catherine Carey of Homax at 360-733-9029.