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Testing Continues on Lead-Safe Work Practices
With only a month remaining until the Environmental Protection Agency deadline for comments on its proposed lead-based paint rulemaking, NAHB volunteers continue to test lead-safe work practices so the association can tell the federal government whether the proposed methods will really work.
NAHB’s concern that additional testing was necessary helped convince EPA to extend the cutoff date to May 25. However, staffers coordinating the NAHB response are still looking to association members for houses in which additional testing can be conducted.
To see if their project might be suitable for testing, builders or remodelers who are about to commence a tear-down can e-mail Gary Suskauer at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8327.
The bottom line is that the rules would not effectively prevent lead poisoning in children, according to NAHB leaders, because they apply only to remodelers or other professionals who work on renovation jobs for compensation. The rules would not pertain to home owners, who do the work themselves more than half the time, according to a study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
The costs of training, materials and other expenses associated with complying with the proposed rule will only lead to higher remodeling costs, and that worries Vince Butler, CGR, CAPS, chair of the NAHB Remodelors™ Council, because then fewer home owners will be able to afford the services of a qualified remodeler.
Home owners are more likely to be inexperienced in typical renovation and remodeling jobs and will tend to work on them in their free time, increasing and prolonging potential exposure to lead dust, he said. “The unintended consequence of making it more difficult to hire a remodeler is that it will actually increase the chance that children can be exposed,” he said.
NAHB supports and continues to work on developing a voluntary set of lead-safe work practices.
“By eliminating mandated work practices, no matter what the job, there is a greater likelihood that a home owner needing a lead-safe contractor can afford one,” Butler said. “There’s also less incentive for a home owner to find an alternate, and potentially less safe, way to get remodeling work done.”
“A focused attempt to improve the housing conditions of affected families is more likely to reduce lead exposure problems than targeting an industry that serves less than 50% of home owners,” he said.
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