For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for 5 product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February 2023 (March 2023 print edition) and The Guardian in November 2023.
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Originally published: September 7, 2015
Updated: September 27, 2019
“Ask Tamara”
Question from Liz: “What’s the best way to wash clothing that could be contaminated with Lead dust?”
These other related questions also frequently come up:
- How do you get Lead dust off of toys?
- How do you get Lead dust out of upholstered furniture?
- Can you clean Lead dust out of a mattress?
- How do you clean rugs that may be contaminated with Lead dust?
- How do you clean a concrete patio (or concrete stairs) that test positive for unsafe levels of Lead dust? More about that at this link, here.
- What detergent do you use to clean up Lead dust? (Click here to read more about that!)
For answers, continue reading below the image.
Tamara’s Response:
Actually, that’s a great question! Lead dust is best removed from cloth items with laundry (and other) detergents whose formulations specifically contain surfactants. Unfortunately, in the natural/ organic/ progressive mama world that many of us are immersed in these days, we look for products that do NOT have surfactants — as they are generally bad for the planet (specifically water systems).
This particular circumstance (Lead dust removal) requires a compromise. In this case, Lead dust in your children’s environment is the (much) greater evil, and surfactants are required to clean up this kind of mess.
So if you normally have “natural” (surfactant-free) detergent at home for your laundry and you have recently had an incident with Lead exposure (or you or your partner are likely to bring Lead dust home on your clothes from work), you really need to get some detergent with surfactants in it in order to effectively remove the Lead dust.
Because my children are also scent and chemical-sensitive, a result of having been Lead-poisoned as babies, what I use is any brand (Tide, Arm & Hammer, All, etc.), but I always make sure to get their scent-free/ dye-free version of the regular detergent. (Mostly, I stick with Arm & Hammer because it seems to have fewer chemicals listed than so many other brands.)
Then, you wash.
Companion Article
What Detergent is Best to Remove Lead Dust?
Tamara, how did you handle this when your kids were poisoned?
When our children were poisoned we had our babysitter and house cleaners help wash everything in the house (in order to keep the kids away from the contaminated stuff and contaminated home).
Things that we could not wash right away (and could not bear to part with) we packed up in boxes clearly marked “to decontaminate/ wash later” — with the date packed on the box — and put in storage.
For all of our washable things (including small pillows, dolls, and anything else that could safely go in our washing machine), we washed the items THREE times in warm or hot water — with extra rinse cycles when possible. (Luckily — as a mom of 3 boys at the time — we had a high-capacity washer, big enough to do comforters, blankets, sleeping bags, and such!) We then ran the washing machine (with detergent) again, empty between loads, just to ensure no residue remained in the washer’s tub.
For things that we could not wash (mattresses, upholstered furniture, large rugs, things that would not fit in the washing machine) we threw them out and replaced them.
What about furniture? Can I get Lead dust out of furniture?
BAD NEWS: It is very difficult (if not impossible) to get airborne Lead dust (from sanding, fumes, or backfiring vacuums) out of household items that can not be repeatedly washed with wet solutions containing surfactants. This is especially true for large fabric items — like sofas and mattresses. The cost of testing the item, and then thoroughly wet-cleaning the item, and then re-testing (most likely repeatedly until the items are clean enough) would be too great/ negate the effort/ likely end up being more than a replacement. Additionally, the most accurate testing for items like this is actually “destructive” digestive testing (where a sample of the item is cut out and tested in a lab to determine the presence of Lead and the quantity/hazard levels). As a result, repeated testing and appropriate cleaning would likely destroy some of these items, especially if they are antiques or made of multiple materials (wood, glue, fabric, dyes, etc.)
What about cleaning toys?
GOOD NEWS/ BONUS: The surfactants in laundry detergent are so good that you can use them to clean other things, too! For our children’s hard toys (that were in the house when the boys were poisoned), we first rinsed everything in our kitchen sink. (We had moved out of the house and were not using the kitchen at all. We had a double sink with one side filled with soapy/laundry detergent water and the other side with clean rinse water. Then we would put them all in the dishwasher — like Duplos, Legos, plastic toy cars, along with other things that could handle that kind of washing.) We washed these toys with the surfactant-containing laundry soap (just like with the clothes: Multiple times, and with an extra rinse cycle, then running the machine empty between batches). For smaller toys (like Legos and little plastic guys) we put them in a lingerie bag in the dishwasher — to prevent things from getting stuck in odd places!
My main tip to follow when using your dishwasher in this way: Please use very little soap and titrate up until you have an amount that does the job without filling your kitchen floor with soap suds, a la Brady Bunch (FYI, that comedic trope dates [at the very least] back to the Mary Pickford silent film, “Suds!”).
If you have follow-up questions regarding this, please feel free to post in the comments section below.
Yours,
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Owner — Lead Safe Mama, LLC
How to test fabrics for lead dust (video):
https://www.esca-tech.com/ProductDetail.php?category=1400&productnum=KT
Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind if you need to wash leaded work clothes at home.
1. When washing leaded clothing you always run a rinse cycle first. This removes all of the free dirt from the clothing first so that when the detergents are added they can go to work on the tough dirt and lead.
2. When washing leaded work clothes at home:
ALWAYS run a rinse cycle after all of the work clothes are done and removed, before any household clothes are washed.
NEVER wash leaded work clothes with any other clothes.
3. Some laundry detergents will react with the lead to form a soap scum that will be visible on the inside of the wash drum and if it is a front load washer it will be visible on the glass, the door gasket and inside the space between the door and wash drum.
4. If you have this soap scum build up then it needs to be removed with an acid wash (Vinegar will generally work).
5. Washer design is such that the lead particles that are freed from the clothing will either float away to the drain or will settle out on the bottom of the washer where they will generally remain forever.
6. Both the lead soap scum and settled lead particles in the holding tank can be removed over the course of 10 or 20 wash cycles with the specialty lead laundry detergents available.
7. You also need to be concerned with the clothes dryer. If the clothes are not getting thoroughly cleaned then they will contaminate the dryer. The dryer needs to be tested with a lead test kit, and if it tests positive, then the drum will need to be cleaned. Because some of the air is recirculated in a household dryer, this cleaning will need to be repeated to purge most of the lead from the inaccessible areas of the dryer.
For additional information see: http://www.esca-tech.com
Dan, thank you so much for posting this!
Tamara,
Thanks for this information. Can I ask how long ago your children were lead poisoned and how it happened? Did you choose to wash the clothes and toys multiple times or did someone tell you to do that? I am just an anxious individual that is curious about some of these answers related to lead poisoning. I am just worried how little it takes to get poisoned.
Jenna
Jenna – sorry to take so long to answer your question! For some reason I never saw it until now. My children are poisoned 12 years ago in 2005, when my baby was 7 months old and my toddler at the time was just about three years old. We had abatement cleaners come clean our home and they FAILED. They did not use clearance testing and our children were re-poisoned once we moved back into the home. As a result (pulling on advice from many many sources) we developed a way of cleaning our things that we felt confident about – a way that later resulted in our home passing clearance testing and our children’s blood lead levels going down. It just takes a microscopic amount of lead dust to poison a child. That is (at this time) a well known fact. Any lead dust is too much lead dust. You can see more of the story of how my children were poisoned in the trailer to the film that I Directed and Produced. Here is the trailer link:
So, where does the lead go after it leaves washing machine. The sewer? I’m not a city water cycle expert, but is more lead being put into drinking water when we wash contaminated clothing? Is it better ( in short term, at least) to just put them in a landfill?
In terms of contaminating later laundry loads, should you always wipe the surface of machine down after washing rags, for example? Should I be cleaning the drains of my washing machine at some point?
What special ingredients are used in lead dust removal hand wash, laundry detergent?
Hello! Thank you for posting this! I know this is an older post but our house just tested positive for lead dust (the home is in relatively good condition turn of the century home but it seems like our soil levels are really high and there may have been non RRP construction happening in some rooms) – We have a 6 month old so we immediately went to my sister’s house and set up abatement workers – our baby tested <1 for his lead test and our lead dust levels are somewhat low to medium high in places but we are still so concerned about moving back into the house – we had things like water hyacinth baskets on the floors for baby toys and blankets – with an item like a basket that is so fibrous, do you have any recommendations for cleaning or would you just toss it? I think the most terrifying thing about lead is the unknown and I really appreciate finding your site – thank you!
Hi! Did you ever figure out what to do with those baskets?
A question about blankets: I have some that can’t be washed in the machine. Will dry-cleaning remove lead dust? Many thanks for your helpful site.
Hi Kate,
I’m sorry to say that dry cleaning may not effectively remove lead dust from fabric items.
Tamara
Hi, I would like to know if Tide Laundry Detergent would be able to remove lead from surfaces? Thanks for the helpful post!
Hi Shirya – yes – it should work well. Make a solution with it with warm water. About 1/4 cup of detergent in a 5 gallon bucket.
Tamara
Thank you, How much water to add? 5 gallons?
3 or 4 is fine.
Do you know if seventh generation free and clear will work in removing lead dust?
Thanks for this information. I was wondering if you had a method of testing clothes/fabrics after machine washing to test if they still contained lead? How did you find out regular detergents remove lead dust. I see there is a special detergent D-lead that is supposed to remove lead dust, it looks like it contains borax and potassium hydroxide (not sure what other ingredients are, those are the only 2 listed on the SDS). Thanks again.
Thank you for this info. We bought a 1945 house this summer and moved into it early this past September. The house was nice and recently renovated. It had been gutted and rebuilt, and it seemed like a good deal. I saw some paint in the attic that was suspect, and I tested it and realized it had lead. We tested for lead dust as well, and it’s below the clearance level. However, I’m still concerned, and we want out of this house in a bad way. I’m fairly certain the dust we have is in the vent work and a result of the renovation. (I tested dust in the vents, and it was high.) I can seem to find anyone able to clean vents and guarantee they won’t make the situation worse, so we’re just cleaning everything all the time. We had our 3-year-old tested, and it came back at less than 1, which was good. That was after two months of living here. We’d lose a lot of money if we sale now, so we have to wait. We have expensive non-toxic furniture and mattresses, so it stinks to throw those out. We may just get a tiny piece tested when we move to see where they are. We use a sealed HEPA vacuum and have HEPA air filters throughout the house. I’m not sure if they help. This all seems so senseless. We knew lead was poisonous for centuries yet continued to put it in paint. Your website is much appreciated!
What kind of soap gets lead off of hands? Do I need to buy d-lead or other lead off advertisised soaps? Also, what floor mop cleaner should I use once in a while to mop up any possible lead from shoe traffic?
Hi Maggie-
Regular hand soap and water are sufficient to remove Lead dust from your hands. On floors, you should use Clorox wipes. Here is a video showing you how to use them. https://tamararubin.com/2017/05/my-cloroxwipesvideo-or-how-to-clean-up-lead-dust-a-short-video-by-lead-safe-mama-tamara-rubin/
Hope that helps 🙂
I’m allergic to all scents n fragrances n have extreme chemical sensitivity so what else can I use for laundry and the washing machine and dryer and the floors to clean with?
Dear Tamara, Could you please help provide perspective on lead-dust by explaining what counts as a lead dust situation necessitating the kind of clean-up measures you outline here? For instance: Do we need to follow these comprehensive measures when dealing with a few pieces of leaded furniture that have been passively sitting in our house? (Two babies in the house, so I am a concerned mama right now!)
We just removed 4 antique furniture pieces from our house that tested positive for lead (two glass-door bookcases with interior lead paint but exterior lead-free varnish, 1 stool with lead paint, 1 child’s roll-top desk with lead varnish). Now I’m wondering about clean-up. (1) Do the contents stored in the (former) leaded furniture pieces need to be trashed or cleaned according to the instructions here? E.g., toddler’s art supplies from the roll-top desk; bedding, books, and figurines stored in bookcases. (2) Does the entire area surrounding the (former) leaded furniture piece need to be cleaned with the measures you outline here?
I’d been living in ignorance for years with these antiques, cleaning them as normal. But then I learned they contained lead. So I immediately stop using them; I get mine and my babies’ blood lead levels tested (all low); and we get the furniture pieces out of the house quickly and carefully. Now I’m faced with the question: How diligent do I need to be about cleaning the potential lead dust contaminating the contents and surroundings of the (former) leaded furniture?
Thank you for your much-needed work!
I bought some clothing for my 5 month old from this website called Shein. Someone just told me that there have been reports of lead being in their clothes. Did not know! I already washed the clothes with the other non-Shein clothes and i read that now those clothes can be contaminated. What detergent can i use to wash the lead out? I normally use threat but im assuming that’s not going to do anything. Thank you in advance.
Hi! Just wondering, does lead dust transfer from one surface to another? For example, if I have lead dust on my hand, and touch an object, is that object now contaminated as well? Thanks!
It depends on the source of that dust – the type of object – what you are doing – too many factors to evaluate from this question.
Read this
https://tamararubin.com/2019/03/the-sugar-packet-analogy-how-much-lead-dust-does-it-take-to-poison-a-child/
and read this
https://tamararubin.com/2021/06/but-is-this-dish-or-toy-or-lamp-or-vitamin-or-piece-of-jewelry-or-tibetan-brass-singing-bowl-actually-going-to-poison-me-and-how-would-that-happen-exactly/
for more context.
Hi Tamara, a question as we move from a house with lead dust (from flaking windows and doors) to a new house. Two questions:
1) What would you do about wicker items (chairs, hampers, tables) that have a lot of crevices? Would hosing them down outside and sudsing with detergent work, or do we need to get rid of these too?
2) For wooden furniture (crib, tables, dressers, etc) – would wiping these with clorox wipes or detergent solution be effective?
Thank you!
Hello, the How to test fabrics for lead dust (video): link doesn’t work. Is there another link I can view?
Sarah,
Use this link:
https://vimeo.com/escatech
Note, this test will not detect lead in fabric dyes. This is a test for metallurgical lead dust brought home from work and will not reliably detect lead from sources of lead paint.
Dan Askin
Technical Director
ESCA Tech, Inc.