My wife is an environmental scientist, and studied, and wrote much of the work on the effects of lead paint on children for the NIH, and it affects a lot more kids than you would think, and the results are irreversible, and not pretty. Certainly not something someone would wish on any child. Don't work with it much now, but when I was a teen I did a fair amount lead and oakum joints on cast iron. Always enjoyed the process, just something intriguing about wacthing molten metal flowing. Mike