If you Google lead paint and stray into US web sites you will have nightmares! They seem to go way over the top treating it more like asbestos or plutonium.
I grew up playing with lead soldiers painted no doubt with lead paint as was the rest of the house and I am pretty normal (well matter of opinion I guess
) made it to 70 so far despite working with lead pipe then eating my lunch and drinking out of lead pipes while breathing lead fumes in petrol!
Sensible precautions are not to allow small children to chew items painted with lead based products, do not try to remove by sanding or burning with a blow lamp.
Most will be over coated by now with low or lead free paint so unless you start stripping to bare wood you are unlikely to expose any. Inhaling the fumes or eating it are the most dangerous exposures, so chips of paint just clean up and wash hands. If you need to strip use paint stripper (I hate the stuff myself but if needs must) or very careful use of a hot air gun which should avoid the paint smoking of burning.
The highest levels of lead were in primers known as red or white lead, red led if you see it is a dark pink colour.
One last thing if you see a brown varnish type layer under the paint it's just shellac varnish our ancestors coated every wood surface in gallons of the stuff, no problem other than it was gloomy as sin and later paint never stuck to it very well!
Just paint over and forget it!
