We have expanded services to include certified home and property lead inspections, risk assessments, HUD inspections and Renovation, Repair & Painting (RRP) Inspections.

We have provided services to toy wholesalers, retailers and manufacturers.  We have done testing for county health departments, state and federal agencies.  We have helped real estate professionals sell homes, and assisted remodelers, home inspectors and other housing professionals.  We work with families of autistic children and can help anyone or any business know what is in their environment.

Recently, I was out performing an in-home inspection and found lead in wall paper.  This was a new experience for me and after further testing, I was able to identify that the back side of the wall paper was made of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC).  The lead and other heavy metals found when testing the wall paper was most likely from the PVC and the back side of the wallpaper not the painted surface.

Contractors, remodelers and homeowners should be aware that there is a potential for lead to exist in wallpaper.  Older homes that contain wallpaper with a PVC or film backing should be aware that lead and other heavy metals may be present.  Creating dusts from this substrate could be potentially harmful. 

In addition, contractors should be aware that tile may contain harmful levels of certain heavy metals including lead.  If you are doing remodeling, renovation or painting that disturbs a painted surface or tile, use caution and be aware that the dust you create could be potentially harmful to you, your workers and the people or children in the home.

Other interesting finds and subjects of upcoming or past blogs include lead and other heavy metals found in:

Bounce Homes
Protein Drinks
Field Turf
Bumbo Seats
Facial Creams and other personal care items

Know what is in your environment!

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FACT:  Are you aware that Essco Safety Check is certified to provide lead-based paint inspections.  Certified lead professionals will come to your location (in Washington State) and using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Analyzers will inspect for lead-based paint.

FACT:  The services Essco Safety Check provide contractors and homeowners, will save you time & money when complying with the new RRP ruling and lead-based paint inspections.  Consider the fact that documents must be retained for three years following the completion of a renovation; we will store all your testing data for free.

FACT:  Currently, EPA approved LeadCheck Kits can determine that regulated lead-based paint is not present on all surfaces except plaster and drywall. 

QUESTION:  What is a contractor suppose to do to determine if lead-based paint is present?

FACT:  Homeowners, apartment owners, government-assisted or public housing, schools and childcare facilities that are older than 1978 that have a contractor disturb a painted surface do to renovation, repair or painting must have the contractor:
 A.  Assume the property contains lead-based paint and follow lead-safe work practices, or
 B.  You or your contractor may also test for lead using a lead test kit.  These kits must be EPA-approved (please refer to above FACT about LeadCheck Kits), or
 C.  Hire a certified professional to check for lead-based paint.  These professionals are certified risk assessors or inspectors and can determine if your home has lead or lead hazards.

FACT:  If you are going to have your property inspected for lead-based paint or lead hazards, Essco Safety Check can:
 
• Save you time & money with hassle-free lead inspection services
• Provide non-destructive XRF testing by a certified lead inspector or risk assessor
• Assist with your data storage and EPA testing compliance issues

QUESTION:  How do I contact Essco Safety Check about my RRP lead testing needs?

FACT:  Visit http://www.essco-safetycheck.com/services/re.htm for more information or call Seth at 425-749-4136.

FACT:  Essco Safety Check is offering a 20% discount off current prices for companies who call and book an RRP inspection by November 1st, 2010.   Good for first inspection for new customers only.

Environmental Services & Solutions Corporation
d.b.a. Essco Safety Check
15906 NE 83rd Street
Redmond, WA 98052
www.essco-safetycheck.com

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Their investigation found lead; in one bounce home that was more than 70 times greater than the legal limit of lead in a child’s product.  They found a lead from a range of 5000 parts per million (PPM) to 29,000 PPM.  The legal limit for lead in children’s products is 90 PPM for painted surfaces and 300 PPM for all other parts of the product.

With all the testing that Essco Safety Check has done, we have tested bounce homes in the past and our findings are very similar to that of CEHs.  The issue with bounce homes is the material that the home is made of.  It is typically made of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and PVC is a substrate that we have found to contain lead more than other typical substrates that children play with.  When PVC is manufactured, a stabilizer is added in production to prevent Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) from forming, unfortunately the manufacturers tend to use lead as a stabilizer.  This stabilizer does not bind well to the PVC molecule and can readily leach from the PVC material.

In some laboratory testing that Essco Safety Check has performed with several accredited laboratories in the Seattle, WA area, we have found that heat can play a factor in to the ability for lead to leach from PVC.  The hotter the temperature that the PVC is exposed to the more likelihood that leaching can occur.  The best thing for children to do after playing in a bounce home is to wash their hands and face, and avoid direct hands to mouth contact while playing in a bounce home.  This is more critical for children under the age of 6, as they are more susceptible to the exposure of lead.

Lead is a neurotoxin that can cause many problems including; learning disabilities, anemia, hypertension, infertility and death among other problems.  Children are more sensitive to lead exposure because of their size (mass) and greater absorption of lead.  It is best to avoid lead exposure as there is no level of lead that is considered safe.

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm.

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Jubilee Farm - Autism Day of Washington 2010

The 10th Annual Autism Day of Washington was held on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at the Jubilee Farm in Carnation Washington. Autism Day is an event designed for families touched by autism a chance to relax in a beautiful setting surrounded by people and businesses who understand. A variety of individuals and companies, service providers and organizations wishing to reach out to the autistic community participated in the event.

Essco Safety Check participated for the third year in a row by providing FREE X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing to look for heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and others) in consumer products. As one mom explained to her autistic child, “they are looking for toxic toys.” We provided a display of products found in the typical home that have been tested and identified with lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury as well as information and publications from the EPA, HUD and Washington State Department of Health.

The rain could not stop hundreds of people from attending the event, going for hayrides, playing on the slip and slide or visiting all the vendor’s booths. Families brought toys, ceramics, jewelry and other consumer products by Essco Safety Check’s booth for XRF testing. Of all items that were tested, ceramics (coffee cups, plates and bowls) were found with the most amounts of lead and cadmium.

Hayrides and Spongebob during Autism Day of Washington 2010

By using technologies such as XRF Analyzers, we can help people and businesses gain knowledge about their environment. If you know what is in your environment, you can mitigate potential harm. Essco Safety Check has been providing in-home environmental testing services for almost three years. Autistic families appear to be more concerned about what is in their environment and have been contacting Essco Safety Check to know what is in their environment since January 2008.

As a service provider to families affected by autism, Essco Safety Check has found there to be a constant in each and every in-home inspection for an autistic family. You should know that these are just observations from our perspective of testing. Essco Safety Check inspectors are not doctors, but are certified lead inspectors and risk assessor.

Essco Safety Check's Booth at Autism Day of Washington 2010

In each and every case of providing testing services to autistic families, the parents of the autistic children tell us that their children have heavy metals in their blood. When they inform us what heavy metals are found in their child’s blood, when we provide XRF testing of the consumer products and objects and items these autistic children come in contact with, we find the same heavy metals in the products as is found in their blood.

I’m not suggesting that heavy metals are the cause of autism; however, I believe that a person with autism has a predisposition to not be able to process the heavy metals and chemicals we all come in contact with. Considering that we are all subjected to a variety of heavy metals in our daily life, until you remove the heavy metals that are affecting the autistic person, how can you effectively treat autism?

Essco Safety Check has developed a methodology of collecting and analyzing the personal environment using XRF Analyzers, photography and an environmental software platform. By understanding what is in your environment you can make educated decisions as to what you, your children, you customers or employees are exposed to.

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This report found that four childhood environmental disorders (lead poisoning, asthma, pediatric cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders) cost Michigan on average $5.85 billion per year.  That is just the cost for these disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders include; cognitive impairment, autism and cerebral palsy. 

These costs include both direct and indirect costs; direct costs include things such as prescriptions and hospitalizations, indirect costs include such things as parental wages lost due to their children’s missed school days and loss of lifetime earnings.  The methodology used to develop these estimates was originally published by Landrigan et al. (2002).

The overall annual cost estimate for Michigan is $5.8 billion, with a range of $3.65 to $6.68 billion.

These cost estimates represent approximately 1.5% of Michigan’s Gross domestic Product every year.

If people and businesses can learn what is in their environment, they can mitigate harm.  If you can reduce the amount of exposure you have to a particular environmental toxicant, not only can you improve your quality of life, it could be potentially economically advantageous.  

Safety V. Money

I can only speak about lead poisoning and autism, as those areas I have been greatly involved in.  Essco Safety Check has been providing non-destructive environmental testing for potential harmful toxicants such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals by utilizing X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Analyzers and software to collect and analyze the environment around us.  Autistic families contact us because they claim their children have a variety of heavy metals in their blood and we can quickly identify a variety of heavy metals non-destructively, quickly, efficiently and accurately.  We specialize in helping people and businesses know what is in their environment.

A study that I wrote earlier this year, The potential economic impact of the CPSIA, was submitted US House of Representative, House Energy Commerce Sub-Committee for Consumer Protection by the Handmade Toy Alliance as “Allowing XRF testing for CPSIA compliance could save $3.7 billion and save small businesses”  This study looked at new federal regulation, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and how businesses are affected by the regulations and how XRF technology can help them reduce costs in testing, getting products to market faster and creating jobs.

If we can now combine these two visions of protecting children and saving small businesses, we are not only doing the ethical thing, were are going to be creating jobs, improving lives, while protecting children, creating jobs and saving people, businesses and government billions of dollars.

Essco Safety Check is proud to be a leader in XRF testing services and environmental software solutions as well as, equally proud to help protect children, homeowners, businesses and government.

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm.

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Autism Day Washington 2009 booth

Autism Day is a free, fun-filled event designed for families touched by autism – a chance to relax in a beautiful setting surrounded by people who understand. Various individuals, companies, service providers and organizations wishing to reach out to the autism community provide free activities with our children in mind. The event is spread out with booths, an hour long slip-n-slide event, adaptive cycles and various food vendors.

Essco Safety Check is participating for the third year in a row and will be offering FREE XRF testing for heavy metals.

Bring your toys, ceramics, jewelry, favorite coffee cup, baby products, paint chip samples, yellow bumbo seats or anything you would like to have tested for heavy metals.   All testing is non-destructive and takes a few seconds to perform.

Please visit our booth on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 from 11:00 AM to 3:00PM for FREE Consumer Product Testing, to ask us any questions about heavy metals in your environment, to pickup special offers or simply learn more about Essco Safety Check.

Autism Day Washington Hayrides 2009

Enjoy the hayrides, farm animals, beautiful flowers, open spaces, camaraderie and free consumer product testing. See you down on the farm!

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On April 22, 2010 the EPAs Renovation Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule went into effect to address lead dust hazards created during renovation of properties older than 1978, this rule only applies to painted surfaces.  Tile is not considered a painted surface, but tile can possess lead and other harmful heavy metals.  If tile is disturbed during renovation, dust can be created that can be potentially harmful. 

Renovators and contractors should be advised to use lead safe work practices if they disturb tile, unless they know what the tile is made of. 

Recently I purchased tile from Home Depot and decided to use an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Analyzer to look for heavy metals in the tile, I own and operate an environmental testing and software business, Essco Safety Check and am a certified HUD Lead Inspector and Risk Assessor.  Using an XRF analyzer I found lead and cadmium in brand new tiles sold today (June 2010).  One of the tiles showed lead over 3mg/cm2, the regulation limit for lead in paint within the RRP Rule is 1mg/cm2, the other showed cadmium over 600 parts per million, there is no regulation for cadmium in the RRP rule.

Tile found with lead and cadmium

In both cases (in the lead and cadmium tile) I suspect that the heavy metals are in the glaze or the coloring of the tile and not the ceramic.  According to the HUD Guidelines, Chapter 7, Lead-Based Paint is defined as;

Any paint, varnish, shellac, or other coating that contains lead equal to or in excess of 1.0mg/cm2 as measured by an x-ray fluorescence analyzer or laboratory analysis or 0.5 percent by weight by laboratory analysis.

Tile is not considered a painted surface and therefore does not meet the qualifications of lead-based paint, even though it is glazed or painted.

In May 2010 I was contacted by a colleague who is a certified lead inspector, EPA approved renovator and general contractor for 25 years.  While performing an inspection for RRP compliance, he used his XRF analyzer on some floor tile that he was going to replace.  The test results from the XRF analyzer showed lead over 5mg/cm2, he called me to ask what to do? 

My first question was would he disturb the tile during his renovation project, and if so, would dust be created?  He said yes.  I suggested that he use lead safe work practices, but he wanted to know the specifics of the law, so I contacted another colleague from the EPAs Region 10 to ask for help finding the specific regulation with the RRP rule and tile.  She searched on the EPAs website under the RRP FAQs and typed in “tile”, but not one response was found in the frequently asked questions page by the EPA.  What is a contractor suppose to do when they disturb tile?

The approved testing method for the average contractor who is not a lead inspector or risk assessor and who does not have access to an XRF analyzer or inspector with such an instrument is to use approved testing “swab” kits.  These kits will not penetrate tile like a drywall painted wall.  In a sample case with tile I purchased from Home Depot, I used an XRF analyzer on the tile and found lead over the 1.0mg/cm2 but when I tested it with the approved lead “swab” testing kits, no lead was found.  How is this protecting the homeowners, renovators or contractors working on their own renovation projects?  What if there are children that live at this work site?

As I have mentioned, the RRP Rule only applies to homes built before 1978, but I was able to find brand new tiles that have lead and cadmium.  To my knowledge and having several discussions with Washington State Officials and EPA personal, there is currently no regulation regarding heavy metals in tile.  Since tile purchased today can contain heavy metals like lead, it may be found in homes newer than 1978.

Homeowners, renovators and contractors need to be aware that tile purchased today, or tile found in homes (of any age) may contain harmful heavy metals.  If you disturb tile and create dust, you could be creating a potential hazard.  You should make sure you contain and clean up all dust created from disturbing tile.  This is only a cautionary warning; there is no regulatory authority behind this.  I wish only to share knowledge that I have obtained by operating my environmental testing and software business, Essco Safety Check.

Additionally, business owners and workers who disturb tile for installation in properties (i.e. bathroom and shower installation companies) should be aware of this and take precautions when doing preparation work and properly contain and cleanup any dust created.  Don’t forget to consider all OSHA regulations, if any lead is found on the property; during a renovation, remodeling or painting of any property.

I would advise using lead-safe work practices if you disturb tile and create any dust.  Or have your local certified lead inspector or risk assessor use their XRF analyzer to check if the tile you are about to disturb has any harmful heavy metals. 

Contact Bob Angeline Lead-Based Paint Assistant Manager at the Washington State Department of Commerce, at 360-725-2929 for questions about the RRP rule in Washington State or contact Seth Goldberg, Essco Safety Check at 425-749-4136 or info@essco-safetycheck.com if you have any questions or comments about this article.

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm.

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Essco Safety Check provided free X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing to anyone that wished to have their toys, ceramics, jewelry and other consumer products non-destructively tested for heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury.  Of the estimated 10,000 people that attended Redmond Derby Day, several hundred visited Essco Safety Check’s booth.

Working the booth

In addition to just providing free XRF testing, Essco Safety Check provided a display of consumer products, that we have found over several years of providing testing, that have potentially harmful elements (lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury) in them.  As well as, discussing these items, we provided insight into the “individual, the item and the relationship”; the relationship between people and their environment, and how knowledge of your environment can mitigate harm. 

Toxic Toys

Essco Safety Check also displayed and handed out brochures and publications from the EPA, Washington State Department of Ecology, Washington State Department of Health and King County Hazardous Waste Management.  We also spoke to several small business owners who are impacted by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and homeowners affected by EPAs Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule. 

Overall, we provided free testing to many local residents and those that did not bring items to be tested but were still interested in having something tested, we provided a coupon for free testing at our offices.  Of the items we did test for people, we found lead in jewelry warn by children, plates, coffee cups and other ceramics, in musical instruments, several toys and other consumer products.  Several of these items were also found to contain cadmium.  The highest amount of lead found was over 400,000 parts per million in some jewelry warn by a child.

Essco Safety Check is proud to provide free testing at community events.  If you missed us yesterday and would like to have something tested for free, please join us Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at Washington Autism Day located a Jubilee Farm, in Carnation, WA from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

If you have a yellow bumbo seat, we are still offering free testing at our offices, please contact us at info@essco-safetycheck.com and in the subject line, please write “Yellow Bumbo”
 
Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm.

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Community Testing

Join us at Redmond Derby Days / IMPACT-Eco event this Saturday, July 10th, 2010 from 10:00AM to 6:00PM for FREE Consumer Product Testing.  Essco Safety Check will be providing FREE X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Testing for heavy metals; lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, antimony and more. 

Bring your toys, ceramics, jewelry, favorite coffee cup, baby products, paint chip samples, yellow bumbo seats or anything you would like to have tested for heavy metals.   All testing is non-destructive and takes a few seconds to perform.

Please visit our booth this Saturday, July 10th, 2010 from 10:00 AM to 6:00PM for FREE Consumer Product Testing, to ask us any questions about heavy metals in your environment, to pickup special offers or simply learn more about Essco Safety Check.

The Eco-Fair will feature:

Stay late for a fireworks spectacle at Redmond City Hall Campus at 10:00 PM

For more information about Redmond Derby Days and IMPACT / Eco-Fair, please visit

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday.

If you are unable to stop by this Saturday we will be participating in another community event in August at WA Autism Day at the Jubilee Farm in Carnation on August 7th from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM and providing free testing for all participants.

Know what is in your environment!

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The Eco-Fair will feature:

Stay late for a fireworks spectacle at Redmond City Hall Campus at 10:00 PM

If you would like to have any consumer products tested for heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, antimony or other heavy metals) please visit our booth between 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM on Saturday, July 10th, 2010. Bring you toys, ceramics, jewelry, paint chip samples, yellow bumbo seats or anything you would like tested, we will be on hand to provide free testing and answer any questions you may have.

All testing is non-destructive and takes a few seconds to perform. For more information about Redmond Derby Days and Impact Eco-Fair, please visit or for more information at Essco Safety Check please visit.

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday.

If you are unable to stop by this Saturday we will be participating in another community event in August at WA Autism Day at the Jubilee Farm in Carnation on August 7th from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM and providing free testing for all participants.

Know what is in your environment!

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