New Rule for Remodelers
As April 22nd approaches only a small percentage of remodelers are ready for the EPA’s new rule on “lead safe practices for home renovation.”
The Environmental Protection Agency will begin enforcing its new rule on “lead safe practices for home renovation” on April 22, 2010. That rule requires remodeling contractors and some of their key people to become certified in the safe handling of lead when remodeling homes built before 1978.
To become certified, contractors must submit an application and fee to the EPA and take an 8-hour class with both classroom instruction and hands-on training.
If you work in any big city metro area or anywhere that you have a large housing stock of pre-1978 homes, you need to get on board with this as soon as possible…I mean in the next 45 days. Please do not dismiss this as something that will pass you by. The EPA will most likely not be visiting jobsites like OSHA but will concentrate on monitoring building permits against property records of homes built before 1978.
Your problem as a contractor will not so much be the handling of the lead paint itself but the documentation paperwork of the job required to be kept in your office by the EPA. Any one of you could have a visit from an EPA inspector with a list of permits on which he wants to see both certifications and records of what was done.
This means that you must keep swipe samples and photos as well as the required paperwork.
The fines are staggering. They can be $32,500 per day per violation and each job not properly documented is a separate violation. However, this may not be the biggest problem for you.
Suppose a customer decides that his/her child became sick because of the lead paint that was not properly handled during the last renovation by your company. If you have not strictly complied with the requirements of the EPA rule you could have a major company threatening problem on your hands.
Please do this the smart way. First, go to the EPA website and find out what you need to do. Get your certification and make sure you follow their requirements to the letter. It will be a pain at first but after a while it will just be another part of doing business.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
By reading the EPA law it gives the states the right on certification standards – How are we to know what standards these are by state and if the state will even adopt the standards the EPA sets – Everybody is freaking out about this just like when the asbestos cames to play and the EPA said suits masks ventilators plastic bags etc… and nothing ever changed — Is all this hype over a lawsuit or something?
And how do we know this is not just hype like the asbestos — When all the contractors forked out money to get certified and it did no one any good except the schools who thought they needed to be certified when the state never adopted the epa guidline.
Hi Mike;
I understand your concern regarding the certification for the safe handling of lead. Presently, 40 of the 50 states have set up standards for the education, licensing and enforcement of this issue. I looked at three states at random; Connecticut, Illinois and Washington. All three closely tied their requirements to the EPA guidlines. Your state, Minnesota, is in the process of doing the same thing.
This is something that has been many years in the making. We started out with having to give out pamphlets and were warned that this day would eventually come. Now it is less than 60 days away.
I am no better than anyone else at predicting the future but I do not think that this particular issue and all the publicity surrounding it is hype. The incidence of sickness from lead paint is a very real problem and much more widespread than the asbestos in housing is. 75% of all houses and building built before 1978 have lead paint on the interior and/or exterior. If you do this type of work then I think that you should take it seriously.
Best Wishes!
Paul
Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.