Fred Oehme, professor of toxicology at Kansas State University, offers some facts about lead and lead poisoning that home owners should be aware of. Lead can be found just about everywhere. It can be detected in paint, batteries, window sills and blinds.
Lead needs to be ingested for it to cause health problems.
Therefore it is usually associated with children because they pick up dust on their fingers and put their fingers in their mouth and swallow the lead. Recent evidence has shown that it doesn't take a lot of lead to affect the functioning of the brain. Lead may even have some long-term effects upon IQ and actual nervous system functions. Signals that a child might have lead poisoning range from not feeling very well and being colicky, to seizures and anemia. The homes that have lead problems are usually older homes that were painted when lead components in paint were very common.