I agree totally with Antiquesilver--people need to realize that a lot of what the government does is to create revenue and jobs for more bureaucrats--not necessarily for something to actually serve the public. Barring disease and disaster, our ancestors survived pretty well--and I'd wager they didn't go around eating paint off the woodwork--raising children was a more hands-on concept back then, and examples were set rather than being raised by a glowing picture box. My god--I rode a bike without a helmet (even wrecked it going down a hill with no more than a couple scratches), drank not only from the garden hose, but an old hand pump across the street; I ate fruit right off the tree, and actually ate snow and rain as it fell! I climbed trees, got hit with a soft ball hit by my dad--one of the few times he didn't hit it across the street or break the bat; my worst injury was coming around the corner of the house and colliding with my dog as she was doing the same--broke two front teeth on the concrete garage entrance. By all means check out safety information, but use your common sense as well--don't automatically scream for an abatement crew when it isn't necessary to do more than a good follow-up cleaning. Every week something else is 'discovered' that will kill you--if taken in the massive quantities which they give to the test animals to show the toxicity. Worry more about the things which are put INTO your daily food and drink than about a very occasional whiff of dust. And with the quality of our air and water these days, and the food additives, it has been shown that life expectancy has actually decreased a bit in the past decade or so.

It just seems really odd that the CDC does not agree with the EPA as to the source of the lead. Add to that the mistakes the EPA has made over the years that have increased risks and they are a little out of control. After billions of dollars in asbestos removal in scholls the EPA finally admitted the entire thing was ill founded. The material should have been encapsulated in place. The EPA made a decision with asbestos to'avoid confucing people' and branded all types dangerous, despite much information that this is not correct. They have managed to create water standards so clean that copper pipes are attacked and lead leaching increases. The Corps of Engineers that runs the Washing Aquduct has had to add more chemicals to the water after cleaning it to solve this problem. One part of the EPA (water quality) failed to discuss the changes withthe other (corrosion specialists). The EPA has nobody watching them, and does not have to answer for the various screw ups they have promulgated. You can search all over the EPA data and they will not even explain what chemcial in paint contains the lead. Guess that might be confusing to the peons. Lead oxide was discontinued in paint a long time ago since titanium oxides are cheaper. What did continue in use was lead acetate (AKA 'sugar of lead') as a drier and hardener in gloss paints. NOT flat paints. This is the reason for the window sills and such being a problem. Lead acetate containing alkyd paint was always expensive paint though. Many of the nicer houses in cities had this paint. The funny thing though is that the rate of lead problems in children is really strongly correlated with income, even in the same housing stock. That does not mean that children from more affluent households do not ever get lead, just that something else is probbaly playing a big part.

Mostly avoid creating any more dust from cutting material than you absolutely must. 'Wonder bars', cat's paws and other prying tools can be used to remove as much material in as few pieces as possible. You can use the lead test swabs for a decent presence/no-presence of lead, but be sure to expose all layers of finish. Lead paint does not turn into dust just from removing the surface it is attached to, and large pieces that can be easily vacumed up are not much of a hazard. If you use a shop vac get a pair of 'clean stream' Teflon filters. When one gets clogged you can carefully wash it clean and let it dry while using the other. Putting plastic on the floor (buy the heavy gauge in a roll, not the thin 'drop clothes' will help control ALL the dirt and dust. Roll the plastic up and throw it out.

It depends a lot how the paper was put on and what kind of adhesion was used how hard you will work to get it off. When you wet it and warm it you want to get it to the point where the paper lifts right off. The issue after that will be the remaining glue. This is where it can get really hard to completely get the glue off to the point where you can paint it without disturbing the lead paint. Also, one thing you may discover is that you do not have a fine finish that will look good painted on the plaster underneath, and that there is in fact no paint at all of any kind in some rooms. They will need a new skim coat anyway. It then becomes: do you have enough glue off to adhere a skim coat? Whatever you do, just be careful. People get all bent out of shape about asbestos and mold but neither of those are really much of a danger in an acute exposure situation, but "lead stupid" is forever . It dissolves in water, it can get dispersed in the air, etc. and if you get it all over the place it can get VERY expensive and hard to clean it out of the house afterward.