Gutting a business for pipes...how much to charge?

Scrappah - I don't want to mislead you are anyone here at SMF. I don't have lead poisoning, I do have a higher than normal BLL (Blood Lead Level). I have had problems with blood circulation for last four years. In my legs and mostly from knees down. I'm like the average man, when I have a medical condition, I shrug it off, keep working until I can't. A little over a year ago, after working another six day week with almost all being 12+ hours. I was in our bedroom taking my boots off, could hardly get them off. GF started helping me, she took the boots off and the first sock, then said: WTF is wrong with your foot! She took the other sock off, same thing and said: Your going to F,ing doctor!

A year later I still have same problem, I also have Neuropathic Pain or "Neuropathy". I now have days when I can't work a normal day, I still work, just more time at my desk and have to put my feet up often. I now sleep with my feet elevated every night and five bottles of pills beside my bed. I also have weeks of no swollen feet, where I do get out into the field where the real work is. I have pain though 24/7, a tingling, burning and jabbing pain. Some days my feet are just numb, on those days it's hard to walk to the bathroom.



Doctors have ruled out blood poisoning, but have told me to limit as much as possible anything containing lead. Neuropathy is one of many medical problems that blood poisoning can cause. Neuropathy is most often associated with diabetes and I don't have that neither. The doctors have started focusing in on a valve, sets just below your heart, like a check-valve. It sends blood to your lower extremities and allows blood to return back to your heart. Will know more in the next couple of weeks, and get this taken care of. I will probably always have Neuropathy in my lower legs. As the results of nerve damage caused more than likely from blood circulation not what it should be to my feet. If I would have went to the doctor four years ago, when my feet first started hurting, could have possibly prevented the permanent nerve damage. Could of's and should of's!

Drinking water at your kitchen sink, is one of four places most likely to cause lead contamination. Those of us that lived in this country, from 1950 to 2000 did so in the highest possible lead exposure risk period. People in this country when tested for BLL in that period of time, are estimated to have BLL's 100 times greater than people before the "Industrial Age". Lead does not get into our bodies all at once, it happens over a period of time and from many sources. We that work with scrap metals and circuit boards also work at the "risk" of lead contamination. We should all know of the dangers of lead poisoning and do everything possible to lower the "risk" of lead contamination to ourselves and those around us.

The good news we are getting the "lead out", lead will never be totally eliminated in our lives. There are uses for lead, that only lead should and will be used. Plumbing products used for drinking water is not one of them. The "Industries" and trade groups are getting there, they are just taking a lot longer than it should have taken. Drinking water should not contain lead, No lead content in plumbing pipes, fixtures and fittings. No means "No", it does not mean "acceptable percentages or levels". The risk of lead poisoning has been reduced greatly, every year since 1974 BLL's of people tested has dropped. Amendment 2014 of Clean Drinking Water Act has required all plumbing fittings to be less than .2% lead content. We will be dealing with lead in our drinking water for a long time, there's still a lot of lead in our domestic drinking water delivery system.

We are all responsible for getting the "lead out", the highest percentage of lead containing plumbing devices, is in the pipe between the water meter and our homes and buildings. The second highest source of lead containing plumbing devices is in the pipes and fixtures of our homes and buildings. The water district or water company doe's not own that portion of the delivery system, it's private property, it belongs to the property owner. The water company is required to do water quality test at the drinking water faucets of their customers. These are to be random samples and samples of known high risk properties (constructed before 1974). Has anyone had their drinking water tested by their water district?

I'm sorry if I have been OT with lead in drinking water or overstated the amount of lead in the pipes, fixtures and fittings. This thread is about a member wanting information about the demolition of a apartment building that is possibly 100 years old. The first thing that I thought of: "That's a lot pipe and most of it contains lead from highly corroded pipe". One of the single highest possible sources to hazardous material exposure: Is any building demolition of a structure built before 1973. There is risk of Lead, Asbestos and Arsenic, that is only three of other known hazardous materials associated with the demolition of a older structure. My source is the Michigan Department of Health, the state of the OP's demolition job.