Lead Paint

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule addresses the hazards created by activities that disturb lead-based paint in “target housing” (where children under 6 and pregnant women live) and child-occupied facilities built before 1978.

RRP regulation requires that individual and company renovators be trained and certified under the rule. Certified renovators must then use lead-safe work practices during renovation, repair and painting activities that disturb lead-based paint in all homes built before 1978, even those without children present, unless a determination can be made that no lead-based paint would be disturbed during the renovation or repair.

When the rule was published in 2008, it included provisions to minimize the regulatory burden of the program that were subsequently eliminated by later amendment or failed to achieve their promised goal in implementation.

The rule also included reference to a low-cost lead paint test kit – a tool that has yet to be created.

It added costs to all remodeling, and because the rule only applies to professional remodelers and other contractors, it created an incentive for owners to hire non-certified “fly-by-night” remodelers or do the work themselves – potentially putting their families at risk.