After carefully collecting some paint chips from the nursery, leaching in white vinegar for 24 hours, and applying the indicator fluid per instructions, the home lead test kit indicates... that it is pretty much worthless. Paint results were negative (clear), but even the solution extracted from solder shavings of 40% lead by weight was only a faint smoggy yellow. The test solution (sodium sulfide, I'd guess by the smell) is supposed to turn brown or black with strong lead contamination. Well, so much for that idea.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Getting the lead out (or not)
After carefully collecting some paint chips from the nursery, leaching in white vinegar for 24 hours, and applying the indicator fluid per instructions, the home lead test kit indicates... that it is pretty much worthless. Paint results were negative (clear), but even the solution extracted from solder shavings of 40% lead by weight was only a faint smoggy yellow. The test solution (sodium sulfide, I'd guess by the smell) is supposed to turn brown or black with strong lead contamination. Well, so much for that idea.
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3 comments:
How interesting! I was thinking of getting a kit to test toys, maybe not that worthwhile.
4th B
That's pretty disconcerting :-(. Just goes to show how psuedo-science sells, I guess.
When I looked into it, several websites say the home test kits are not useful. You can send samples to a lab, or bring them to someone who has an x-ray fluorescence tester. Sometimes toy stores offer that service on a special testing day.
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