How Environmental Testing Can Help You Prepare for a Newborn

Quick Answer: Test your home for mold, lead, asbestos, radon, VOCs, and contaminated water before your baby arrives. Newborns are more vulnerable to these hazards than adults, and RTK Environmental Group can identify problems while there’s still time to fix them before the big day.

Key Takeaways

• Infants who live in homes with mold are three times more likely to develop asthma by age seven.
• Homes built before 1978, the year lead paint was banned, may still have lead on walls, windows and trim.
• Homes built before 1980 likely contain asbestos somewhere, and it’s only dangerous once disturbed.
• Well water and city water both warrant an independent test before a baby comes home.
• RTK Environmental Group only tests. It never remediates, so its findings carry no conflict of interest.

What Environmental Hazards Should New Parents Test For?

The hazards that matter most before a baby arrives are mold, lead paint and dust, asbestos, contaminated water, and poor indoor air quality. Most people never think to check for any of them. You baby proof the outlets, you install the car seat correctly, you research cribs for months. Then the house itself, the air in it, the water running through it, gets overlooked. Pregnant women are more susceptible to environmental toxins too, so the right time to test is while you’re expecting, or even while you’re planning to be.

Why Does Mold Put My Newborn at Risk?

Mold exposure in a baby’s first year is tied directly to breathing problems later on.

A study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology found that infants living in moldy homes are three times more likely to develop asthma by age seven. Separate research from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Yale University found a strong connection between mold exposure during a baby’s first year and a persistent wheeze or cough by twelve months of age. Find out if you have mold. That’s the whole first step.

RTK provides varying levels of mold testing, and if levels come back too high, we can lay out a plan to correct it.

Should I Test for Lead Before My Baby Comes Home?

Yes, especially if your home was built before 1978, the year lead paint was banned. Lead poisoning isn’t just an urban problem. Layers of old lead paint sit on walls, windows and trim in older homes across the Tri-State area, and opening a window, sanding a wall, or renovating a room can send lead dust into the air a baby breathes.

The CDC has lowered the acceptable amount of lead in a child’s blood, because even small exposures can irreversibly affect development. Lead poisoning has been linked to autism-like symptoms, ADHD, brain damage and lower IQ.

Past lead exposure has been blamed for over 400,000 deaths in the United States every year, according to The Lancet Public Health. RTK uses non-destructive X-ray fluorescence testing to measure lead in painted and sealed surfaces, along with lead dust and water sampling. If we find a problem, we lay out options for abatement or stabilization. And if you’re planning to renovate the nursery, test before the first wall comes down.

Sanding, scraping or painting over old lead paint is exactly when it turns dangerous.

Should I Test for Asbestos Before Setting Up the Nursery?

If your home was built before 1980, it likely contains asbestos somewhere, and it’s only a health risk once it’s disturbed. Asbestos shows up in old insulation, floor tiles, ceiling tiles, plaster, drywall compound, roofing materials and pipe wrap. Left alone and intact, the EPA considers it generally safe.

But sanding a wall, pulling up flooring, or disturbing pipe insulation to get a nursery ready can release fibers into the air, and inhaling them has been linked to lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. There’s no reliable do-it-yourself asbestos test. Samples have to be collected by a trained professional and sent to an accredited lab.

RTK performs that testing, not the removal, so a positive result doesn’t come with a sales pitch attached.

Is My Water Supply Safe for a Newborn?

Every bottle you prepare, every bath you draw, every time you wash your hands before touching your baby, you’re passing along whatever is in your water. That includes lead, bacteria, heavy metals from old pipes, naturally occurring arsenic, radon and pesticides. It doesn’t matter if you’re on well water or city water. Test independently.

Plenty of homeowners are skeptical of the results reported by city, state and federal agencies, and for good reason.

RTK’s water testing gives you an unbiased read on what’s actually coming out of your tap.

What’s in My Home’s Air?

New nursery furniture, air fresheners, cleaning products and hair spray can all release Volatile Organic Compounds into the air your baby breathes. Add paints, solvents, disinfectants, nicotine, glue, pesticides and building materials to that list.

Even low concentrations can irritate eyes, nose and throat, trigger headaches, and damage the liver, kidneys and central nervous system, children most of all. Then there’s radon, an invisible, odorless gas produced when uranium decays in soil and water.

It’s now the leading cause of lung cancer deaths among non-smokers in the United States, and the EPA estimates more than eight million homes have a radon problem, with a concentration of them right here in the northeast. RTK’s indoor air quality testing checks for radon, mold, carbon monoxide, PCBs, VOCs, particles from furnaces and fireplaces, and common allergens, then delivers a report with recommendations to fix what we find.

What Is a Healthy Baby, Healthy Home Inspection?

It’s RTK’s environmental testing package built specifically for expectant parents, and it’s become a popular addition to baby registries and showers. Checking for mold, lead, radon and other hidden contaminants matters as much as picking out the safest crib or car seat.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I test my home before my baby arrives?

As early as possible, ideally while pregnant or while you’re planning to be, and well before any nursery renovation begins. Pregnant women are also more susceptible to environmental toxins, so the sooner a hazard is found, the sooner it can be addressed.

Should I test before or after renovating the nursery?

Before. Disturbing old lead paint or asbestos during a renovation, even something as simple as installing a ceiling fan or sanding a wall, is when these materials become dangerous. Test first, then renovate.

Does RTK remediate the problems it finds?

No. RTK Environmental Group only tests, it never remediates. That keeps every report unbiased, since there’s no incentive to exaggerate a problem in order to sell a repair.

My house was built after 1978. Do I still need lead testing?

Lead can still turn up in tap water and household dust regardless of when a home was built, so testing isn’t limited to older houses alone.

What does an indoor air quality test actually check for?

Radon, mold, carbon monoxide, PCBs, VOCs, particles from furnaces and fireplaces, and common allergens.

Where does RTK provide these services?

RTK Environmental Group serves the Tri-State area, including New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.