EPA Issues
Final Remodeling and Renovation Rule; Advocates Urge Effective Implementation,
Stronger Local Measures
On March 31, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
released a rule designed to protect children, workers, and occupants from exposure
to unhealthy levels of lead during renovation, repair, and painting. The Alliance
for Healthy Homes praised the new regulation as a step in the right direction
but cautioned that the rule must be strengthened to adequately protect children.
The Alliance also pointed out that EPA took 16 years to promulgate and finalize
the rule, in which time millions of children were exposed to lead.
Expanding Lead-Safe Work Practice
Requirements
In 1992, Congress instructed EPA to develop regulations
to create standards for conducting lead abatement activities and to ensure that
other renovation and repair activities do not create lead hazards that could
harm children. EPA followed through with the abatement side, creating the now-familiar
structure for training, licensing, and regulating the lead abatement industry.
However, work done during the course of renovation—which affects many
more properties than lead abatement—was left unregulated by EPA contrary
to congressional mandate. After more than a decade of false starts, EPA finally
got serious about issuing a rule in response to political and legal threats
in the last three years.
A renovation rule is essential to protect our children.
Although recent attention has been focused on lead in toys, the vast majority
of children with lead poisoning are exposed to lead from the old paint in their
own homes. Dust created by damaged paint is the primary route of exposure for
children. EPA estimates that as many as 8 million renovations occur each year
that could generate dangerous levels of lead dust—which even in miniscule
amounts can harm children.
The rule requires contractors who work in older homes and
child-occupied facilities to take simple, low-cost precautions to avoid creating
and spreading leaded dust and to clean up any dust that is generated. The rule
also requires the firms or management companies disturbing lead-based paint
to be certified and to have at least one employee who has completed a one-day
lead-safe work practices training. Firms are responsible for providing "on-the-job"
training for all other employees. Power sanding, open flame burning, and sandblasting
of painted surfaces are prohibited.
The rule applies to most residential property constructed
before 1978, the year lead-based paint was banned in the United States. Certain
child-occupied facilities, including day care facilities, pre-schools, and kindergarten
classrooms, will also be subject to the rule. The rule’s requirements
are waived if there is proof that there is no lead in the paint where the work
is to be performed. An owner-occupant can opt out by attesting that there are
no children or pregnant women in the home.
Once the rule is officially published,* the EPA is giving
states a year to step forward and seek authorization to enforce the rule within
their jurisdictions. By fall 2008, EPA will finalize a revised lead-safe work
practices training course and other educational and outreach materials. As of
April 2009, training providers may apply for accreditation to teach the eight-hour
lead-safe work practices and a four-hour refresher course. In October 2009,
contractors may start applying for their certifications. By April 2010, all
requirements of the rule go into full effect, and therefore only certified firms
and individuals may legally perform the work covered by the regulation.
Missed Opportunities
While a positive and significant step forward, EPA’s final rule ignores
many scientific and practical concerns raised by leading experts and advocates.
In addition to the excessive two-year timeframe to implement it, significant
flaws in the rule would expose children and pregnant women, as well as renovation
workers and painters, to dangerous levels of lead and provide tenants and property
owners false assurances that lead dust has been safely removed. The rule is
also substantially different from HUD’s Lead Safe Housing Rule, which
applies to federally assisted property, creating the potential for confusion
among property owners and contractors.
The most significant flaw, however, is the lack of a credible
method for ensuring that lead dust generated in the course of the repair or
renovation is adequately cleaned up and removed. Instead of requiring clearance
testing, a proven quantitative method for measuring the amount of lead dust
on floors and window sills against EPA’s own scientifically validated
hazard standard, the rule requires contractors to run a cloth over the area
a certain number of times, hoping to show it does not pick up visible dust.
Since a small amount of invisible lead dust can poison a child, the effects
of omitting clearance could be devastating.
Other notable shortcomings of the rule include:
Requiring formal lead-safe work practices training for
only the supervisor, who need not even be present during all of the work,
while limiting worker training to an undetermined amount of “on the
job” training
Waiving the rule in owner-occupied housing that does
not have young children or pregnant women, an unwarranted modification to
the statutory definition of “target-housing”
Increasing the “de minimis” area, or exemption
for small projects, from the longstanding HUD/EPA level of two square feet
to six square feet per room for interior work, furthering the confusion between
standards
Allowing the use of "dry scraping," which
generates substantial amounts of hard-to-clean lead dust, which is prohibited
in abatement and HUD projects
Seeking States to Implement the Rule
Although the Alliance will continue to advocate for additional safeguards, we
believe it is essential to push forward with the implementation of the rule.
Even as written, the rule has the potential to greatly reduce exposure to lead.
The challenges to effective and timely implementation of the rule are far from
insignificant. By EPA’s estimates, 211,000 individuals will need to be
trained and certified within a six-month window. Upwards of four million renovation
activities per year will fall under the scope of the rule. Enforcement will
require serious mobilization of officials who have viewed lead poisoning prevention
solely as the job of the lead-based paint activities programs and health departments.
Implementation and enforcement of the rule will function
best if integrated into existing state and local agencies such as those already
involved in code enforcement and regulation of construction and/or contractors.
It is unrealistic to expect that EPA regional offices and state lead-based paint
activities programs alone can manage the potential volume of complaints or provide
adequate oversight of renovations. State and local staff “on the ground”
issuing permits and assessing compliance with local codes need to be empowered
to verify that containment and work practice requirements are being followed
and to hold accountable renovators who are in violation. State and local entities
that license contractors should incorporate the lead-safe renovation and painting
requirements as part of their existing licenses. Additionally, states seeking
authority to implement the rule can make the rule more protective, expanding
training requirements, requiring clearance, and addressing other shortcomings.
EPA’s ability to both implement the rule and provide
states with incentives to seek authorization to enforce the rule locally is
limited by a lack of money. The Bush Administration has requested no additional
appropriations from Congress to implement the rule in 2009.
To encourage implementation of the rule, the Alliance will
be working to increase EPA’s funding, especially for local implementation
assistance, training, and compliance assistance. Additionally, we will be reaching
out to states and localities, offering model legislation to implement a more
protective rule on the state level and guidance for devising means for local
enforcement. For more information on the EPA rule, the Alliance’s statement
about the rule, and steps advocates can take to urge their local and state governments
to implement the rule effective, visit www.afhh.org.
Contact Patrick MacRoy at pmacroy@afhh.org
if you would like Alliance assistance with your jurisdiction’s implementation
strategy.
* Note that although the “final”
rule was posted on the EPA’s website and announced on March 31, the legal
clocks start when it is published in the Federal Register. The Alliance’s
understanding is the Federal Register publication is forthcoming and
will correct some minor errors in the March 31 release.
City of San
Diego, State of Indiana Strengthen Lead Laws; Include LSWP Requirements
On April 9, the City of San Diego passed a comprehensive
lead ordinance that, among other things, will mandate that those engaged in
renovation, remodeling, and painting activities use lead-safe work practices.
Unlike the EPA rule, San Diego’s ordinance applies to all buildings built
prior to 1979, not just housing or child-occupied facilities. The San Diego
ordinance bans acetylene or propane burning and torching; scraping, sanding,
or grinding without containment barriers or a HEPA local vacuum exhaust tool;
hydro-blasting or high-pressure washing without containment barriers; abrasive
blasting or sandblasting without containment barriers or a HEPA local vacuum
exhaust tool; or heat guns operating above 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit. The measure
also leaves open the option for the city to prohibit other renovation practices
that are found to disturb lead-based paint or otherwise create a lead hazard.
Other provisions of the ordinance make the presence of
lead hazards in all residential property illegal and require landlords to make
and document visual inspections at property turnover. The ordinance also requires
home improvement stores and others to post a lead display and provide other
lead education materials to their customers and establishes strict liability
for the presence of lead hazards.
The Indiana General Assembly recently adopted new, proactive
provisions to the state’s lead law, and Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) signed
the bill into law on March 21. The law requires the Indiana State Department
of Health to develop a training program in lead-safe work practices that will
be required for those disturbing lead-based paint.
The Indiana law will also help ensure that children with
elevated blood lead levels receive prompt services; protect consumers from lead
in toys and other products by prohibiting retail stores in Indiana from selling
products that contain too much lead according to federal guidelines or the judgment
of the Indiana State Department of Health; improve the safety of professional
home remodeling and improvement projects; provide safer advice for do-it-yourselfers;
and create a high-level committee to consider long-term solutions.
Congratulations to advocates and all who worked to pass
improvements in both jurisdictions!
Sens. Reed,
Hagel Introduce Healthy Homes Legislation
On March 7, Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
introduced the Healthy Housing Council Act of 2008 (S. 2735), which would bring
together federal, state, and local government representatives, as well as industry
and nonprofit leaders, to examine the most effective ways to make America’s
housing healthier.
The bill would authorize $750,000 for each of the next
five years for the Council to review, monitor, and evaluate existing housing,
health, energy, and environmental programs and to make recommendations for reducing
duplication, ensuring collaboration, identifying best practices, and developing
a comprehensive healthy housing research agenda. The Council would submit an
annual report to Congress outlining agency actions on healthy housing, as well
as research, policy/program, and funding recommendations.
Residents of housing that is poorly designed, constructed,
or maintained are at risk for cancer, injuries, childhood lead poisoning, and
asthma. Children and the elderly are particularly at risk. Providing healthier
housing in the United States will help prevent an estimated 240,000 elevated
blood lead levels, 18,000 unintentional injury deaths, and 2,000,000 emergency
room visits for asthma.
Members of the Council would include the agency heads of
the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development,
the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Departments of Energy, Veterans
Affairs, Treasury, Agriculture, and Labor. Six members of the Council would
represent state or local agencies, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit industries.
Update:
Campaign to Make Model Code More Health Protective
At the Feb. 18 International Code Council hearing on changes
to the International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC), the IPMC committee accepted
two of the ten proposals submitted by the Alliance for Healthy Homes and the
National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH). It accepted a proposed change to
clarify that clothes dryers (except condensing or ductless dryers) should be
vented outside the structure and another proposed change that provides that
the owner of a multiple occupancy structure shares responsibility for addressing
infestation problems limited to an individual dwelling. The committee rejected
proposals to require lead-safe repair of interior and exterior deteriorated
paint (or correct underlying moisture problems) under the incorrect reasoning
that “other agencies already have minimum lead paint practices in place,”
and noted the need for definitions within the code. The committee also refused
to redefine extermination to de-emphasize broadcast applications of pesticides
but signaled that a proposal to change the actual code requirement may be appropriate.
The official reasons for committee action are posted at www.iccsafe.org/cs/codes/2007-08cycle/ROH/IPMC.pdf
(and see the original proposals at www.afhh.org/aa/aa_housing_codes.htm#proposedchanges).
The Alliance encourages code officials in all jurisdictions
to support proposals similar to those proposed by our organization and NCHH
at the final hearing, which will be held in Minneapolis in September. Anyone
can join the ICC, but only government staff can vote at this final hearing.
Contact Ruth Klotz-Chamberlin at ruthkc@afhh.org
if you can help advance model code changes.
Embattled HUD
Secretary Resigns after Key Senators Urge His Ouster
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson resigned on March 31, after
Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Patty Murray (D-WA) on March 21 called for him to
quit. The Senators made their request in a letter to President Bush following
what they said was Jackson’s refusal to answer key questions about alleged
corruption and favoritism in awarding public housing contracts. HUD is a key
executive branch agency in efforts to make healthy housing a reality in America.
Jackson claimed he was resigning to “attend more
diligently to personal and family matters,” but outside pressure for him
to step down was mounting in recent months. Dodd, chair of the Senate Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Murray, chair of the Senate Appropriations
subcommittee that provides funds to HUD, said that Jackson has repeatedly refused
to respond to direct questions regarding corruption and cronyism in public housing
contracts in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and the Virgin Islands. Jackson also
previously claimed to have rescinded the contract of a person who was not a
supporter of Bush (though he later said that he was “lying” about
this claim) and allegedly advised his senior staff to improperly take party
affiliation into account in making key decisions.
Jackson repeatedly responded to Congressional questioning
by saying that because the allegations are currently under investigation, it
would be improper for him to comment.
Bush has tapped Steve Preston, current head of the Small
Business Administration, to replace Jackson at HUD.
Senate
Passes CSPC Bill, Set to Hammer out Differences with House
On March 6, the Senate passed S. 2663, the Consumer Product
Safety Commission Reform Act, by a 79-13 margin. The bill, sponsored by Sen.
Mark Pryor (D-AR), passed following a compromise between Pryor, Sen. Daniel
Inouye (D-HI), and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). The House passed similar, though
weaker, legislation in December 2007.
The two bills were proposed as part of a set of comprehensive
reforms following a rash of toy and other product recalls in 2007. High levels
of lead-based paint and other dangerous substances were found in scores of toys,
and choking and other injury hazards plagued other products. The Senate legislation,
among other things, would increase civil penalties for product safety violations,
require third-party testing of all children’s products, protect both government
and private industry whistleblowers who identify harmful products, create a
public database of hazardous products, and empower state attorneys general to
enforce Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) rules and recalls on the state
and local level.
President Bush, Acting CPSC Chair Nancy Nord, and a spate
of industry groups including the National Association of Manufacturers, oppose
the Senate bill, arguing that CPSC already has the authority it needs to keep
products safe for consumers; that a public database would “confuse”
consumers if it turned out that a product was not hazardous; and that allowing
state attorneys general to enforce the law would lead to a “patchwork”
of uneven enforcement and uncertainty for industry. Environmental and public
health advocates countered that CPSC has been asleep at the switch for years
and that the Senate bill will provide the authority and motivation needed for
the agency to do a better job.
S. 2663 will now have to be reconciled with the House bill,
H.R. 4040.
Senators
Ask Colleagues to Support Adequate Healthy Homes Funding
Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) once again
circulated a request to their Senate colleagues asking them to sign a letter
to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate subcommittee that writes the HUD
appropriations bill, urging increases in funding for lead and healthy homes
programs for Fiscal Year 2009.
Specifically, the letter requested a total of $195 million
for HUD's lead and healthy homes programs in FY 2009 (compared to $145 million
that was appropriated last year, FY 2008). Of this $195 million, $95 million
would go for the regular lead hazard control grants program and $50 million
would be for additional lead hazard control grants targeted to places with highest
needs. Funding for Healthy Homes Initiatives would increase to $20 million,
as the Alliance and others have urged in the past. President Bush has requested
only $116 million for FY 2009.
The Alliance had previously asked for advocates to contact
their Senators to encourage them to sign on the letter. We’d like to thank
everyone who took the time to share the importance of lead and healthy homes
funding with their Senator. As we go to press, Senators still have a few more
days to sign the letter. We will share the results of the effort in the next
Alliance Alert.
Formal
CDC Tests Find Formaldehyde in “Katrina Trailers”
Following a number of complaints and tests by nonprofit
organizations that detected formaldehyde in much of the temporary housing provided
to survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) has undertaken a formal study and had found dangerous levels of the colorless
gas in many of the so-called “Katrina Trailers.”
Since the trailers were first provided to Katrina survivors
several years ago, a significant number of residents have complained of ailments
ranging from sore throat and headaches to severe respiratory problems, and at
least one man may have died from extremely high levels of formaldehyde exposure.
Those with asthma and other respiratory problems are at particularly high risk
of health problems from the carcinogenic chemical.
Now that CDC has formally detected the chemical in many
of the Katrina trailers, the agency is examining exactly how and why residents
were exposed. Puzzling questions, such as why some trailers only contained levels
of formaldehyde found in most homes, whereas others contained up to five times
as much of the gas, have yet to be answered. CDC is systemically tearing trailer
materials and their components apart in an attempt to determine the source of
the chemical. Formaldehyde is typically found in pressed wood products, particleboard,
and some carpet adhesives. It can “off-gas,” escaping from the products
and into the air. If off-gassing occurs in a confined space, such as a travel
trailer, formaldehyde can potential build up to hazardous levels.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced
earlier in 2008 that it was offering healthier alternative housing to all trailer
residents. However, many Katrina survivors say that significant harm has already
been done, and several trailer residents announced in mid-March that they will
sue FEMA and trailer manufactures for providing them with hazardous, defective
housing. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana will
consider the case.
The situation also prompted the Sierra Club and other organizations
to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to formally adopt
formaldehyde standards approved in March by the California Air Resources Board.
The Board’s standards dramatically reduce formaldehyde emissions from
composite wood products such as plywood and particleboard. The rules will reduce
formaldehyde emissions from these products by 57 percent, or 700 tons per year,
by 2011 in California. The groups said that their petition is designed to protect
all Americans from excessive levels of formaldehyde and to help prevent another
tragedy like the one that has befallen the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
CDC Releases
Draft Great Lakes Toxin Report as Controversy Mounts
The CDC in March released a draft report on toxins affecting
the Great Lakes region. The release came amid mounting controversy and allegations
that the agency had suppressed the report’s findings and demoted its lead
author for ardently pushing for the report’s release.
Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in Twenty-Six
U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern indicates that toxic chemical pollution remains
a great concern in the Great Lakes region, with chemicals such as lead, PCBs,
and dioxins potentially affecting public health. The report, which has been
extensively peer-reviewed and is highly regarded by independent environmental
health and public health scientists, does not lay out a cause-and-effect relationship
between the presence of the toxins and the increased incidence of many human
health problems among Great Lakes residents. Instead, the report notes that
the apparent correlation between pollution and health problems is an area that
warrants serious future study. The toxins studied in the report can make their
way into people's homes through airborne dust and can also be tracked in from
outside.
CDC officials, including Dr. Howard Frumkin and Dr. Henry
Falk, expressed concerns that the report was not scientifically sound as written.
Despite releasing both a 2007 draft and a 2004 draft of the report, Falk said
that the report would likely undergo further revisions before a final version
is deemed ready for release. The Institute of Medicine is also undertaking another
review of the report; experts say that this review is unnecessary.
Controversy surrounding the report exploded in February
when the Center for Public Integrity obtained unreleased drafts of the report
amid allegations that CDC was about to attempt to “water down” the
report’s findings. CDC also demoted Christopher De Rosa, the report’s
lead author, removing him from his position as lead toxicologist at the Agency
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The House Committee on Science and Technology and the House
Committee on Energy and Commerce weighed in on the issue, both demanding the
immediate release of the report and answers to questions related to De Rosa’s
demotion. Reps. John Dingell (D-MI) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) pledged to investigate
the matter and conduct thorough oversight.
We have moved! To contact the Alliance by mail, please
address all correspondence to: Alliance for Healthy Homes, 50 F St., NW, Suite
300, Washington, DC 20001. You can also reach us by phone at 202-347-7610 and
by FAX at 202-347-0058. Our e-mail addresses remain the same.
* * * * *
We are pleased to announce the receipt of a grant from
the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to expand our work with community development corporations,
financial institutions, and community-based organizations in building capacity
to address health hazards in affordable housing. As the affordable housing community
increasingly moves toward "green" or environmentally friendly, energy-efficient
construction and rehabilitation, health considerations must also be included.
The Alliance will work with national and local partners to develop a green and
healthy training curriculum and strategies for nonprofit housing organizations.
* * * * *
Alliance staff members were widely quoted in newspapers
across the country about the benefits and shortcomings of EPA’s RRP rule.
Although printed in many April 1 editions, the stories were anything but a joke.
Wire services, including the Associated Press and Reuters, distributed stories
highlighting both the benefit of the rule to children’s health and our
view of the shortcomings in the final review. Many state and local advocates
also reached out to and were consulted by the media to give a local perspective
on the rule. Congratulations to all that helped to frame public discussion on
this important rule! Additionally, thanks are due to our colleagues at the National
Center for Healthy Housing who jointly issued the press release with the Alliance.
* * * * *
If you appreciate the news and information in the Alliance
Alert, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Alliance!
We rely on donations from individuals and organizations to allow us to do policy
work in Washington and across the country. You can make a one-time donation
or sign up to make a recurring monthly or quarterly donation on our website
at www.afhh.org.
We thank you for your support!
Upcoming Conferences
and Trainings
EPA is sponsoring a "National Asthma Forum: Sharing,
Learning, and Taking Action Together" on May 1-2, in Washington, DC. Asthma
prevention leaders from across the U.S. will meet to discuss the most effective
community-based strategies for managing asthma, share best practices, learn
from award-winning programs, and develop concrete strategies (including environmental
strategies). Representatives from health care plans, health care providers,
state and local health and environmental departments, nonprofit organizations,
and others affiliated with community asthma programs are all welcome. For more
information and registration, visit www.epaasthmaforum.com.
On June 3-5, the Ohio Department of Health and the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will host the Ohio Lead and Healthy
Homes Conference 2008 in Columbus. The goal of the conference is to educate
health care and environmental professionals, parents, and community leaders
about the current medical, environmental, and programmatic issues of childhood
lead poisoning prevention and the healthy home in Ohio. For more information,
visit www.odh.ohio.gov
or e-mail Melody Sexton at Melody.Sexton@odh.ohio.gov.
HUD, CDC, and the EPA will co-sponsor Building a Framework
for Healthy Housing: 2008 National Healthy Homes Conference from Sept. 15-17
in Baltimore, MD. The conference will focus on key themes that together build
the framework necessary to make homes safe, healthy, and efficient for everyone:
Building Capacity to Deliver Healthy Housing; Mainstreaming Healthy Housing
Principles; Creating Healthy Housing through Research; Developing Enforcement
and Regulatory Strategies; Marketing Healthy Housing; and Educating the Public
and Practitioner. Abstracts are being accepted for presentations through May
15, and early registration is currently open. For more information, visit www.hud.gov/offices/lead/2008NHHC.cfm.
