An evaluation of chemical screening test kits for lead in paint
The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act (Title X) requires abatement and management of lead-based paint. The purpose of this study was to evaluate three chemical screening test kits using materials and methods from one study and subjecting the results to the statistical analysis of another. The three kits were used to predict the presence of lead in paint at ten weight concentrations from 0.04 to 3.97%. Paint was applied to four wood boards yielding a sample size of 40. Four boards were painted with lead-free paint and used as blanks. All of the boards were tested with the three test kits by an untrained individual having no knowledge of the actual lead content. Sensitivity, specificity, and false positive and negative rates were calculated for the test kit results. The manufactures` detection limits, the observed sensitivity ranged from 1.00 to 0.80, specificity ranged from 1.00 to 0.42, false positive ranged from 0 to 58%, and false negatives ranged from 0 to 20%. At the 0.5% Federal threshold level, the observed sensitivity ranged from 1.00 to 0.94, specificity ranged from 1.00 to 0.5, false positives ranged from 0 to 11.1%, and false negatives ranged from 0 to 20%. The observed false positive and false negative rates for all three kits were found to be significantly lower than those reported in a previous study. These results indicate that the kits perform very well at the Federal threshold, with two of the kits having false negative rates below 12.5% and false positive rates of 3.13%. These results indicate that these two kits would probably be acceptable screening tests for lead in paint.
- Research Organization:
- Alabama Univ., Birmingham, AL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety, and Health, Washington, DC (United States); Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education, TN (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76OR00033
- OSTI ID:
- 573156
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/OR/00033-T768; ON: DE97053800; TRN: AHC29807%%23
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: TH: Thesis (M.S.); PBD: Apr 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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