brain damage

New Lead Paint Law Coming in April 2010

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Starting in April 2010, federal law will require that contractors be trained to protect pregnant women and children from high levels of lead. Signed into law in March of this 2008, the EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program is the most important new effort to fight childhood lead poisoning in a decade the EPA  says.

The law requires contractors and maintenance personnel to be certified, and their employees trained. Also they must follow protective lead-safe work procedures when renovating, repairing or painting activities will disturb more than 6 sq ft of lead paint in a room or where twenty sq ft of lead paint  is disrupted on the outside.

Workers are required to hang warning signs, to keep occupants from work areas, prevent dust & debris from escaping, cleanup thoroughly and verify that the cleanup was performed correctly.
Two out of every three homes and fifty percent of the day care centers and schools built prior to the 60’s have some lead paint. These new regulations are for those constructed prior to 1978, the year the lead paint ban went into effect, where kids under the 6 reside or where pregnant women live.

Exposure to lead-based dust is the most likely way kids get lead poisoning, “which can cause serious behavior and learning problems in children and health problems in adults” says the EPA.
By requiring certification, we will be able to identify those contractors who are trained in lead-safe work practices. 

This will no doubt ably raise the cost of home remodeling due to the extra cost from licensing & training. Contractors will also have higher material & labor cost in order to contain and cleanup any dust created from the remodeling process. They will have no choice but to pass the extra cost to the homeowner.

For more information visit  www.epa.gov/lead, or phone the National Lead Information Center at 800-424-5323.