Featured Hot Rods When was lead based paint banned in the USA?

lots of risks in life....nothing wrong with eliminating a few.

 

My great grandmother started smoking at 102
Died at 104.

is was cooking with lard that got her

 

I remember the kids in commercials eating lead paint chips in the late sixties. I thought about trying it.

 

Apparently it was for her.

 

Fear can work wonders !
Back in the late 80's a young guy had found an old Chevy Coupe and was planning on
putting the body on a 4X4 chassis. He was in the process of sanding off the old paint when
he found a lot of lead in the seams of the roof area and quit sanding immediately. He was so
scared of what he had heard about lead that he wanted this old dangerous thing out of his life
and Off of the property !.....Long story short, this '38 Chevy Coupe that was a CUSTOM from the
late '40's found it's way back to the original builder in Sacramento. Erik Sanders in Eugene, OR
recognized the custom build of Dick Berlucci when the new owner brought it to his shop and shared
the story of how fear had laid it at his feet. Some cussin' and some discussion later, it was agreed upon
to call Dick Belucci Body Shop in Sacramento and see if it should go back to it's builder and early owner.
Yep, Dick and a friend came up to Eugene and the deal was done... Thank you Erik !! (RIP)
And.... last but not least was the Final Clue...
DUH ! ...screwed onto the Chrome glovebox door was a Brass Tag from the Bonneville Salt Flats
with Dick Berlucci's name and his speed with GMC engine.

 

Don't deliberately inhale the paint sanding dust but you are not going to die from once or twice exposure although you really shouldn't inhale sanding dust. Human beings have been poisoning themselves with lead since the beginning of time It's only been the last 40 or so years that we've became aware of it.
When you sand your car, Wear a good quality dust mask like one of those cool flow 3M ones (You should do that anyways even if it's acrylic enamel or lacquer). Once you are done sanding the car sweep up the sanding dust and throw it in the trash and if you got it on flat surfaces in the garage wear your dust mask keep the little ones away and grab the air compressor and blow out the garage.
As for your clothes just put them on the heavy duty cycle in the washing machine and make sure to use enough soap for the heavily soiled clothes.

 

Why gamble that the "extra" is enough to tip the scales?[/QUOTE]
Although I do agree with the point that you should take proper safety precautions I will say that life is too short to worry about everything let's be real You are dealing with an antique car, lead paint, lead in the combustion chamber, lead bodywork, cancer-causing used motor oil, polyethylene glycol antifreeze, rotten seat foam that is turned into a fine microplastic dust, brake shoes and clutch discs made with asbestos... That goes on top of when cars are improperly stored and they have rodent droppings that may contain the hauntavirus, e coli, botulism and pretty much every other nasty bacterial thing you can get from animal feces. Then that goes on the top of the fact that an old car is just inherently dangerous on every aspect of the word, besides the engines making carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons at an astronomical level compared to a modern vehicle, You have the actual safety issues with a car no seat belts, no airbags, no crumple zones and about a million other things but yet we all still work on them. I for some reason actually find it somewhat therapeutic but I digress.
My point is, classic cars and car restoration is a fairly dangerous and dirty thing we should all take proper precautions to make sure we don't deliberately inhale sanding dust and we should probably wear gloves when we change used motor oil and if we are being realistic we probably shouldn't be driving our functioning museum pieces... Myself I don't let things like that worry me, I put on a mask when I sand and I just recently started doing that probably in the last 5 years or so And I also quit smoking because to quote my mother you only get one set of lungs but the reality is is I know the risk and I've known the risk we all do it's just part of day-to-day life, I am not going to tell anybody to not wear protective gear because that's just stupid but I am going to tell people don't Go crazy worrying about stuff like that You're not dealing with radioactive waste full of gamma ray particles, You are dealing with a microscopic amount of lead that is technically suspended and dried paint and although you are turning it into a dust it is not like you are burning it and inhaling the vapors like a hatter (The expression crazy like a mad hatter is because they had lead poisoning If you did not know that).
Again wear a mask, once you are done sanding go in and immediately get showered including washing your hair and body with soap. Take your clothes put them in the washing machine if you have a heavy duty cycle put it on heavy duty and make sure to use soap for heavily soiled clothes and everything will be okay.

 

Well said !
(Although the mad hatter thing is related to mercury poisoning ).

 

I belong to a old boat forum that once had a sad post from a one-time poster as a warning to others. Their son bought a yellow painted aluminum boat and was sanding it to bare metal not using any respiratory PPE nor covering his skin. He died quickly not from lead but from cadmium poisoning. Many old reds and yellow pigments along with aviation grade primers often used on aluminum contained cadmium which can be very toxic/deadly depending on circumstances. Moral of story; use a respirator and wear long sleeves, pants, gloves and closed shoes when sanding anything you know nothing about.

On the original topic; Lead test kits are $5 on amazon or at a big box home store. Not a big deal to test if you are concerned. Broccoli will chelate lead out of your system, so eat your veggies.

 

I worked in the body shop for forty+ years, 70s through 20 teens and I’ve had my lead levels checked over the years not once have they been elevated. In the early days a lot of paint and primer was sprayed without a mask along with sanding paint for preparation. In my opinion it’s the urethane and epoxy or any enamel used with a hardener coatings used today that will get you. The last ten years I was spraying I was using a full face respirator which protects your eyes as well as your lungs. Gun washing or cleaning with thinner is another risk, thinner is quickly absorbed into the skin and is a carcinogenic so take care.
Back to the full face respirator, your eyes are at more risk than your lungs being exposed to paint, over the years I haven’t known anyone to get lung cancer because of body and paint work but I have known someone who got cancer in his eyes and died from paint work. Something you don’t think about.
So please take care of yourself when you’re working on your project.

 

Lead is good for you...
after all, it protects you from radio-active fall out, when you get an X-RAY!!!

 

Didn’t know that cadmium was in some paints !

Mercury, lead, chromium, cadmium, and arsenic - the 5 most toxic heavy metals………

(from what I understand)

 

To the title of this thread "When was lead based paint banned in the USA?", my answer is: "Not soon enough."

What do I win?

 

The color that had a lead warning most of the time was silver, this was back in the early nineties.

 

You mean like the MERCURY they put in your teeth? Hmmm...

 

Thank You ! Exactly..

 

Yes, same stuff - (but I am guessing that you already knew that).

 

lead paint for interiors was banned in some european counties as early as 1909. The dangers have been known a lot longer than 40 years. The term mad as a hatter refers to the danbury CT hat makers who used a lead based mix to stiffen beaver hats that were fashionable about 1800.

 

Sounds like a friend of my dad's. Guy's fortunately still alive, but forty years of painting and body work at GM made it so he's borderline on oxygen all the time. Knew other's that aren't so lucky from that generation. Back then, they didn't know, or weren't told, but now we dont' have that excuse to be so cavalier about our health.

Anyways, that's my two cents for what they're worth.

To the original OP, I'd just treat it as it has lead, and go from there. Keep your mouth and nose covered, well ventilated, and find any way to keep the dust contained and out of spreading around. How you don't that is beyond my pay grade, but I'm sure there's a way. Personally id just pay someone to paint/body work any car I work with, but that's because I don't know what I'm doing

Always thought that was mercury poisoning that lead to that term?

 

A friend of my dad's built several land speed race cars, the last one I think he finished in about 2002. Welded the full chassis himself on the streamliner from chromoly.

About 10 years later he was having a lot of health issues... Turned out to be toxins in his body from all the heavy metals he breathed in while welding. Over a period of several years his body poisoned itself until he eventually died. Whether welding, bodywork, or whatever it is, you're right that we know better now than to be cavalier with our health.

I have a nice compact respirator for use under my welding helmet, one for use painting and grinding, etc.