We held the first two stops of the Angie’s List Lead Safety Tour last weekend. The events in Indianapolis and the Bay Area attracted a lot of families AND contractors, but we want to have even more for our events in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and St. Louis on October 6.

One of my favorite quotes from the two events came from Alex Dongallo, a contractor in the Bay Area who summed up the reason we’re focusing so much time and attention on raising awareness. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Alex said the workshop he took was “eye opening."

'I've worked with a lot of painting contractors, and I think many of them need to be better educated,' he said. 'I think lead poisoning is something that needs to be better addressed. A lot of us don't think about how someone could get lead poisoning from work we do. We all need to be safer.'

Joe and I have lived in older homes that we’ve improved, and I’ve already had my kids tested to be sure their lead levels aren’t elevated. I also rejected a contractor who I’d interviewed to do work in my basement, which I was concerned might have lead paint. When he told me he couldn’t help with addressing issues regarding lead paint, I knew I needed a different contractor.

If you have kids and you live in an older home, please get the training you need to keep yourself away from lead dust. And have your kids tested either by your pediatrician, the local health department or at one of our Lead Safety tour events.

If you'd like to see what the news media is saying about the tour, here are two stories from last weekend.

Workshops, free testing at lead-poisoning prevention tour kickoff

Local Company Offers Lead Testing, Safety Training

I’m on the West Coast this week, meeting with members and media folks to talk about Angie’s List and to promote our national Lead Safety Tour, which kicks off this weekend in San Francisco and Indianapolis. It’s a great opportunity for service companies, do-it-yourselfers and parents to address an issue that we take very seriously here at Angie’s List: lead poisoning.

We’re offering the lead safety tour because we did a survey this summer to see how service professionals were dealing with lead issues. We found a third of the contractors we called were giving dangerous information. So we’re trying to raise awareness of the issue and offering training to help everyone deal with this serious issue in as safe a manner as possible.

I’m going to be away from home for a week; I’m traveling with my family (3 kids, my husband and my mom). It’s a bit hectic, but it’s been great.  Juggling my work with the travel and fun with the family reminds me that I wanted to mention a new group I’m hoping to talk with soon – the ManicMommies.

Manic Mommies was founded by Erin Kane and Kristin Brandt, two working moms who wanted to help other working mothers find great information and deal with the stress of juggling families, careers and personal lives. They’re planning a retreat, which they’re calling the Escape on November 9-11 in Newport, Rhode Island. They asked me to speak to one of their sessions, but I haven’t been able to work it into my schedule.

We’re working to get me on their podcast, though, so I’ll keep you up to date on that.

While I won’t be at the Escape in person, we’re sending some fun Angie’s List stuff and I hope to be with Erin and Kristin – one way another – very soon.