Does someone know how to test if a building is contaminated? I live in the EU and this a non-issue, but I'm afraid if/when I have to move back to my home country.
I wouldn't call it a non-issue. Lead pipes in new buildings were not forbidden in the Netherlands until 1960, and there are still plenty of older buildings in use (including housing daycares, where drinking tap water is the norm). The extend of the problem here is not clear, but in one sample in a neighborhood in Amsterdam last year, around 19% of the houses had too much lead in the tap water.
Handheld XRF scanners can detect lead and other heavy metals. But they cost more than $10k. A lead remediation contractor probably will have one of these so they can tell what paint has lead in it, what needs to be removed. Also many government building inspectors will have these scanners.
There are lead test kits with a marker like swab. You can test painted surfaces, things like dust, it takes about a minute and turns red if there is lead. A 2 pack is $11 at the hardware store here in the US. There are also test kits you wipe for lead dust, or send paint fragments and send it off to be tested. In many areas these are free or subsidized by the local government. In the US a non subsidized test kit is around $5 to buy, and around $30 to send to a lab.
Also lead paint can be safely "encapsulated" and painted over in most cases. It is really only an issue for door frames or window frames where the paint can turn to dust, or where paint is peeling or chipping.
Check with your local municipality. In the US most places have free testing via a local government lab. The only way to know for sure is testing the water. It’s also not just lead pipes that are the issue (although that’s the biggest problem)… lead is also found in older soldier and plumbing fixtures.
