Blower Doors Don't Spread Lead

The test was organized in response to a concern raised regarding the use of blower doors to test homes being rehabbed to meet the energy efficiency criteria of Milwaukee's neighborhood revitalization program. The Milwaukee program rehabs 800-1,000 housing units each year, most of which are single-family homes or two-flat wood frame residential structures. These homes are located in older neighborhoods where lead-based paint is a major public health concern.

The apartment where the test was conducted was the upstairs unit of a wood frame two-flat. The participants chose five sites around the apartment: two windowsills, two painted horizontal radiator covers next to windows, and one 1 ft² floor surface next to an exterior wall. There was air movement around and near each test site when the blower door was operating.

Mary Smith of the Bureau of Public Health tested the five sites with dustwipes at the start of the test, cleaned them, and then retested them. All windows were then closed. Hector Ruiz of Opportunity Industries Center of Greater Milwaukee then operated the blower door at 50 Pascals for ten minutes. I and the other testers checked the apartment to see if air was moving in through the perimeter walls. We found air moving through outlets, around windows, and in other normal sites.

After turning off the blower door, Smith again tested the five sites with dustwipes. The dustwipes for each of the three tests at each of the five sites were sent to the Bureau of Public Health Laboratory for analysis. All sites showed lead dust levels below EPA clearance levels as given in Guidelines for the Evaluation and Control of Lead-Based Paint Hazards in Housing (see Table 1). Sharon Pendleton, the project coordinator at the Milwaukee Health Department, characterized the test results as showing "very little lead dust impact" even in the dustwipe that showed the highest reading on the final test. "This is not likely to be a fluke since the suction/draft created during such tests are not likely to disturb dust that much," says Pendleton.

Though this is just one test, it does offer support for the safety of using a blower door in older rehab projects. This conclusion shouldn't be that surprising, since a blower door simulates the pressure on a building's envelope exerted by a 20-25 mph wind, pressure that is experienced commonly during storms or when weather fronts pass through.

--Jim Cavallo

Jim Cavallo is a Program manager at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois.

For more information: For more information on this test, go to http://affordablehousing.anl.gov and click on "Current Projects."

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