If you have children, lead in your home can cause serious long term health and behavior problems for them. Lead is a hazard to children under 6 years of age in particular. Lead in paint, dust and soil is a problem for children because it gets in their bodies when they put their fingers, toys or paint chips or dust into their mouths. Lead can also harm a pregnant woman and her developing fetus.

You should consider testing for lead if there are children in your home and…

• your house was built before 1978, or
• your house is near a freeway or busy roadway where leaded gasoline and its exhaust may have polluted the soil with lead.

If your house was built before 1978, it is especially important to test for lead if…

• your house has peeling or chipping paint;
• your house has bare soil in the yard where children play;
• you plan to repaint, remodel or renovate the house;
• a child living in the house has had a blood lead test result indicating lead exposure
• your house was built before 1950 — such homes almost always have some lead-based paint.