1. Efficacy of a lead based paint XRF analyzer and a commercially available colorimetric lead test kit as qualitative field tools for determining presence of lead in religious powders.
- Author
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Shah, Manthan P., Shendell, Derek G., Meng, Qingyu, Ohman-Strickland, Pamela, and Halperin, William
- Subjects
LEAD analysis ,COLORIMETRY ,COST effectiveness ,HEALTH facilities ,PAINT ,STATISTICAL sampling ,X-ray spectroscopy ,DEPARTMENTS ,PREDICTIVE tests - Abstract
The performances of a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) lead paint analyzer (RMD LPA-1, Protec Instrument Corp., Waltham, MA) and a commercially available colorimetric lead test kit (First Alert Lead Test Kit, eAccess Solutions, Inc., Palatine, IL) were evaluated for use by local or state health departments as potential cost-effective rapid analysis or “spot test” field techniques for tentative identification of lead content in sindoor powders. For both field-sampling methods, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values varied widely for samples containing <300,000 µg/g lead. For samples containing ≥300,000 µg/g lead, the aforementioned metrics were 100% (however, the CIs had a wide range). In addition, both field sampling methods showed clear, consistent positive readings only for samples containing ≥300,000 µg/g lead. Even samples with lead content as high as 5,110 µg/g were not positively identified by either field analysis technique. The results of this study suggest the XRF analyzer and colorimetric lead test kit cannot be used as a rapid field test for sindoor by health department inspectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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