Cast iron bath lead exposure?

irelandjnr

How concerned should I be about this? Doesn’t sound the most reassuring news to have discovered.

And also, my second query is about sanding and painting the outside of the bath. Should we be additionally worried about lead here?

Addmagnet

The lead, if present, is in the glaze.

There are swabs you can buy that are supposed to give you an indication of whether lead is present, but their reliability generally is considered pretty poor. (They give both false positives and false negatives)

If you're concerned, get your bath professionally tested and if lead is present choose to either replace the bath or get it refinished.

irelandjnr

Who specifically can professionally test this in Ireland?

I’m leaning toward now keeping the 15 mm fibreglass-reinforced acrylic bath we bought. We’ve yet to install it but I now read at this thickness it may retain water heat better than I had originally figured based on something I gleaned online. I also I hear it doesn’t yellow, but this claim I am more sceptical of. But worst case we can repaint it several years down the line if need be, so not the end of the world.

Addmagnet

It's an environmental thing, so without doing your Google search for you, I'd guess an environmental testing services company.

Someone with access to a hand-held x-ray fluorescence machine.

In the end, again, if it's a big concern to you, it might save you time, money and hassle to just fit a new bath (after making sure the new bath has no lead used in the manufacture of it's glaze!)

irelandjnr

Money wise I’m not buying a new probably safer cast iron bath, because they’re very expensive… but acrylic baths like the one we have and have yet to install do not contain lead. I’ve decided to embrace our acrylic bath.