HEPA Vacuums
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HEPA Vacuums
Living in a house built before 1978, you should assume there is lead paint. Opening and closing old wood windows causes friction on touching wood surfaces helping spread lead dust. Only one gram of lead dust (think of a restaurant sugar packet) can contaminate a whole room, plus more areas of your house as foot traffic spreads lead dust. Proper cleaning can help reduce the risk of children ingesting of lead dust.
Using a HEPA (A High-Efficiency Particulate Air) vacuum cleans up to 99.97 percent of airborne particles that are of 0.3 micrometers. This is important because lead dust is very fine particles and invisible to the naked eye. A HEPA filter vacuum has strong inbuilt filters to catch lead dust and cleans your home more thoroughly.
*Don’t empty bag-less vacuums indoors. This can create a cloud of lead dust contaminating the room you just cleaned. Always empty bag-less vacuum containers outdoors.
*Never use a home vacuum cleaner to clean up lead hazards, even if it is advertised as having a HEPA filter. It is important to use a professional-grade HEPA vacuum for lead hazards because these vacuums are specially sealed to ensure that no lead dust escapes into the room.
The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) offers a HEPA Vacuum Loaner Program. Download to access a PDF with contact information
for organizations across the state that are participating in this program. For general information about the program, please call the ODH Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at (614) 466-1450 or 1-800-554-7447.
The video below shows how to use a HEPA Vacuum similar to the ODH Vacuum Loaner Program vacuum. What Vacuum style should I buy? The Consumer Reports Vacuum Buying Guide
can help you get started.