NEW Lead Awareness Program

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation Lead Paint: Renovation Repair and Painting goes into effect on April 22, 2010. The intent of the rule is to prevent childhood lead poisoning. Consumers planning a home remodel after April 22 need to ask if the remodeler is an “EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm” and has a certified renovator on staff to conduct the work according to the rule’s requirements.

Rule Overview and Requirements:

• The rule requires that firms be certified to work in target housing (homes built before 1978) if they are disturbing painted surfaces (more than six square feet inside a home or 20 square feet on the exterior). Firms working in target housing must employ trained and certified renovators, conduct pre-education for the consumer (such as posting signs and distributing copies of the pamphlet “Renovate Right”), set up dust containment around work areas, use lead-safe work practices, clean the work area and safely dispose of dust, and maintain records of their work for at least three years.
• The required training (six hours in the classroom and two hours of hands-on work) instructs contractors on the rule’s requirements, teaches dust-containment techniques, and helps contractors apply lead-safe work practices in targeted housing.
• All remodeling firms subject to the regulation must be certified and must have a trained and certified renovator on staff.
  
• Contractors subject to the rule include remodelers, carpenters, plumbers, painters, heating and air conditioning workers, window installers and others who regularly disturb paint in pre-1978 homes.