EPA Lead Based Paint RRP Training Certification

October 1, 2010 – The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today recognized the more than 476,000 home renovation contractors who have successfully completed the training required under the federal Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule.

“Six months ago, we were quite worried that home owners would not have enough certified remodelers, technicians and other contractors to do work in the nearly 79 million homes built before 1978 that are affected by this rule,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a builder in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

NAHB’s concerns were echoed by legislators including Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) sponsored an amendment to a supplemental appropriations bill that, in effect, chastised the federal Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to provide enough trainers to allow the rule to be enforced nationwide.

The EPA responded by extending the deadline for obtaining training until Dec. 31, 2010, and by late August, NAHB’s affiliated state and local home building associations had offered more than 1,200 lead certification classes to their members and other contractors in the community.

NAHB remains concerned about the far-reaching effects of the lead paint rule, especially for those consumers who have no children but who own homes built before1978. These homes have no need of the lead-safe work practices — in fact, the EPA estimates that half of all pre-1978 homes do not contain lead paint at all — but remodelers have no choice but to follow the rule anyway.

“The EPA promulgated this rule with the understanding that an inexpensive lead-paint test kit would be available, and remodelers could skip the extra steps necessary and save their customers a significant amount of money,” Jones said. “But so far, there is no such test.

“We’d like to thank Sen. Inofe and other national leaders for their close attention to the lead paint rule,” Jones said. “There’s no question that we need to safeguard the health of the small children and pregnant women who can be devastated by the health effects of ingesting lead paint dust. Let’s also make sure that those who don’t need protection aren’t also paying the price.”

Source: http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?newsID=11380