Glass composition development for stabilization of lead based paints

Exposure to lead can lead to adverse health affects including permanent damage to the central nervous system. Common means of exposure to lead are from ingestion of lead paint chips or breathing of dust from deteriorating painted surfaces. The U.S. Army has over 101 million square feet of buildings dating to World War II or earlier. Many of these structures were built before the 1978 ban on lead based paints. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers CERL is developing technologies to remove and stabilize lead containing organic coatings. Promising results have been achieved using a patented flame spray process that utilizes a glass frit to stabilize the hazardous constituents. When the glass frit is sprayed onto the paint containing substrate, differences in thermal expansion coefficients between the frit and the paint results in spalling of the paint from the substrate surface. The removed fragments are then collected and remelted to stabilize the hazardous constituents and allow for disposal as non-hazardous waste. Similar successful results using a patented process involving microwave technology for paint removal have also been achieved. In this process, the painted surface is coated with a microwave coupling compound that when exposed to microwave energy results in the spalling of the hazardous paint from the surface. The fragments can again be accumulated and remelted for stabilization and disposal