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Serving Western Washington since 1998.
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The Rules.
Environmental Protection Agency's "Title X."
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Really called the “Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992--Title X” and found HERE.
The following are the first few pages of the act that explain the what and why of this act. SEC. 1002. FINDINGS. The Congress finds that – (1) low-level lead poisoning is widespread among American children, afflicting as many as 3,000,000 children under age 6, with minority and low-income communities disproportionately affected; (2) at low levels, lead poisoning in children causes intelligence quotient deficiencies, reading and learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention span, hyperactivity, and behavior problems; (3) pre-1980 American housing stock contains more than 3,000,000 tons of lead in the form of lead-based paint, with the vast majority of homes built before 1950 containing substantial amounts of lead-based paint; (4) the ingestion of household dust containing lead from deteriorating or abraded lead-based paint is the most common cause of lead poisoning in children; (5) the health and development of children living in as many as 3,800,000 American homes is endangered by chipping or peeling lead paint, or excessive amounts of lead-contaminated dust in their homes; (6) the danger posed by lead-based paint hazards can be reduced by abating lead-based paint or by taking interim measures to prevent paint deterioration and limit children's exposure to lead dust and chips; (7) despite the enactment of laws in the early 1970's requiring the Federal Government to eliminate as far as practicable lead-based paint hazards in federally owned, assisted, and insured housing, the Federal response to this national crisis remains severely limited; and (8) the Federal Government must take a leadership role in building the infrastructure -- including an informed public, State and local delivery systems, certified inspectors, contractors, and laboratories, trained workers, and available financing and insurance -- necessary to ensure that the national goal of eliminating lead-based paint hazards in housing can be achieved as expeditiously as possible. SEC. 1003. PURPOSES. The purposes of this Act are -- (1) to develop a national strategy to build the infrastructure necessary to eliminate lead-based paint hazards in all housing as expeditiously as possible; (2) to reorient the national approach to the presence of lead- based paint in housing to implement, on a priority basis, a broad program to evaluate and reduce lead-based paint hazards in the Nation's housing stock; (3) to encourage effective action to prevent childhood lead poisoning by establishing a workable framework for lead-based paint hazard evaluation and reduction and by ending the current confusion over reasonable standards of care; (4) to ensure that the existence of lead-based paint hazards is taken into account in the development of Government housing policies and in the sale, rental, and renovation of homes and apartments; (5) to mobilize national resources expeditiously, through a partnership among all levels of government and the private sector, to develop the most promising, cost-effective methods for evaluating and reducing lead-based paint hazards; (6) to reduce the threat of childhood lead poisoning in housing owned, assisted, or transferred by the Federal Government; and (7) to educate the public concerning the hazards and sources of lead-based paint poisoning and steps to reduce and eliminate such hazards. |
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Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (RRP).
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Based on the 1992 "Title X" act the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formulated and enacted the Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) Rule.
The full rule can be found HERE. Briefly: Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting, and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint, which can be harmful to adults and children. To protect against this risk, on April 22, 2008, EPA issued the Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule. It requires that firms performing renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in pre-1978 homes, child care facilities and schools be certified by EPA and that they use certified renovators who are trained by EPA-approved training providers to follow lead-safe work practices. Contractors must use lead-safe work practices and follow these three simple procedures:
The rule requires that contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint provide to owners and occupants of child care facilities, and to parents and guardians of children under age six that attend child care facilities built prior to 1978, the lead hazard information pamphlet Renovate Right (found HERE) . The rule affects paid renovators (not do-it-yourselfers) who work in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities, including:
Under the rule, child-occupied facilities are defined as residential, public or commercial buildings where children under age six are present on a regular basis. The requirements apply to renovation, repair or painting activities. The rule generally does not apply to minor maintenance or repair activities where less than six square feet of lead-based paint is disturbed in a room or where less then 20 square feet of lead-based paint is disturbed on the exterior, but this does not include window replacement, demolition, or prohibited practices. |
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