New Lead Based Paint Rules to Take Affect April 22, 2010

11 April 2010

The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules for all U.S. Remodelers are about to take affect. Exactly 32 years after finally banning lead based paint, and leaded gasoline shortly thereafter, the Federal Government is enacting some rules and guidelines for the safe disruption and removal of lead paint from older homes.

Under the new guidelines all contractors working on homes built prior to 1978 and disturbing basically any painted area (six or more square feet within a home or 20 or more square feet on the outside) will be required to be EPA certified through a lead based paint training class. During this course contractors will be instructed on testing for lead paint as well as ways to contain and prevent the spread of lead dust within and about a home that they are preforming work on. As of late March only about 14,000 contractors nationwide have completed the course. That's out of something like a conservative estimate of 200,000 remodeling contractors according to NARI (The National Association of Remodeling Industries).

The new rules are most likely intended first and foremost to protect children under the age of six who are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning. Most commonly, children ingest lead dust that has been dislodged during renovation work through normal hand-to-mouth interaction. Its a common myth that children get lead poisoning from eating lead chips. So the importance is on containment and cleaning contaminated sites. “The classic signs and symptoms in children are loss of appetite, abdominal pain, vomiting, weight loss, constipation, anemia, kidney failure, irritability, lethargy, learning disabilities and behavior problems. Children may also experience hearing loss, delayed growth, drowsiness, clumsiness, or loss of new abilities, especially speech skills.” Adults are likely to experience, “headache, abdominal pain, memory loss, kidney failure, male reproductive problems, and weakness, pain, or tingling in the extremities.” In adults lead poisoning is more common as an occupational hazard, remodelers and painters for example.

It is important to note though that ingesting lead paint dust is not the only way to get lead poisoning. Remodeling and lead based paint abatement intentionally or otherwise have been largely unregulated until now. Contractors renovating older homes have been required to hand out a brochure about the dangers of lead paint for some time now, but for most of Portland's history a scrape now and ask questions later attitude has left much of the soil in the city probably contaminated with lead. Imagine the last 50 to 80 years of scraping and repainting most of the pre 1978 homes of Portland. Some of them multiple times, and many with high speed sanders grinding the paint into fine dust and sending it aloft on a breezy summer day. Add to that the long term use of lead containing pesticides, mix it with this city's robust interest in gardening and you have a recipe for contamination! Even while your post April 22, 2010 EPA certified renovation contractor did everything that he could to contain the lead paint within your home, it turns out you may have been eating lead infused veggies all along. Water is also possible source of contamination, and not just in groundwater. Houses with older plumbing may have fixtures made of lead or pipes with lead solder. In the US, according to some studies, 14–20% of total lead exposure is attributed to drinking water. During research for this blog entry I found out that reporters from The Washington Post discovered high levels of lead in the drinking water in Washington, D.C. in 2004 and won an award for investigative reporting for a series of articles about this contamination. If you are considering gardening or already do, you may want to have your soil tested. If you have older pipes or fixtures in your home you may likewise wish to get your water tested.

Dwelling Renovation has been using most of the EPA sanctioned techniques already. During sanding inside or outside of a home, whatever the material and regardless of its age, we use HEPA filter equipped vacuums attached to our equipment to limit the spread of dust at the source. We use drop clothes to capture paint fragments and diligently vacuum up after work even in soil. We wipe down surfaces and clean diligently for your protection. We use the same techniques even for removing finishes from floors, woodwork, built-ins and cabinets because we know you can't wait 30 years to for some agency somewhere to determine that poly-urethane dust, or the dust of other finishes, paints, silica, gypsum, wood fillers or whatever are toxic. That said, there is always room for improvement, as we learn and as the industry reveals new information we will strive to always be improving our standards for your safety. Not just at the start, by suggesting the best materials and safest finishes for your home, but during the remodeling process when your safety and comfort are key.

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