College Works Painting, a company operating in Oregon, has agreed to pay $32,508 penalty for alleged violations of the federal pre-renovation rule. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleged that the Irvine, California based company violated the federal pre-renovation rule while renovating nine properties in Portland, McMinnville and Hillsboro, Oregon.
The federal Pre-Renovation Education Rule requires painters, contractors, carpenters, property-management companies and others involved in remodeling or renovation of pre-1978 housing to provide home owners and occupants with an EPA Renovate Right lead hazard information pamphlet. In 1978 lead was banned from paint used for housing.

This pamphlet educates home owners or occupants on how to minimize exposure to hazardous lead dust that is often generated during sanding, cutting, demolition or other renovation activities. The pamphlet also provides resources for more information about lead and minimizing lead hazards.

The violations in this case took place during renovation work done in 2008. College Works failed to establish and maintain records necessary to demonstrate compliance with Toxic Substances Control Act regulations, according to the EPA. College Works has corrected the violations and is now in compliance with EPA’s Pre-Renovation Education Rule.

“Families have a right to know about possible lead health hazards around the home,” said Rick Albright, Director of EPA’s Office of Air, Waste and Toxics in Seattle. “By reading the Renovate Right pamphlet families can learn how to avoid hazardous lead dust during renovations.”

Lead-based paint can be on walls, ceilings, woodwork, windows, or even floors. When lead-based paint on these …

The owners and manager of 11 housing units at 10 properties in Holyoke, Mass., have agreed to pay a total of $16,000 to resolve claims by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that they violated the federal lead-paint disclosure law.

Atlas Property Management Inc., 224-224A Washington Street Nominee Realty Trust and Archgate Townhouses LLC failed to provide prospective tenants with information concerning the presence of lead paint between 2007 and 2009, EPA’s New England office alleged.

Atlas Property Management of Holyoke, which managed all of the properties and handled all of the lease transactions in question, and the Washington Street Trust, which owns 10 of the 11 units in question, together agreed to pay a total penalty of $12,500 to resolve the allegations, EPA said.

Atlas manages residential rental properties with more than 250 units in and around the area and according to its website specializes in “problem buildings” requiring high levels of service and property maintenance.

Archgate Townhouses of Swampscott, Mass., which owns one of the units cited in the EPA action, agreed to pay $3,500 to settle its alleged violations. The violations against Archgate arise from an October 2009 lease on one of the rental units in a property located in West Springfield, Mass.

All three parties were charged with failing to give tenants required lead-hazard information pamphlets, failing to include lead warning statements in a lease, failing to include a disclosure statement regarding lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards, and failing to provide records or other information pertaining …

Oregonians love old homes. They love to hang new kitchen cabinets and blow in insulation to make them pretty and comfy.

But there is a toxic side effect: lead.

Installing windows, scraping paint and demolishing walls can stir up fine particles of lead from paint brushed on decades ago. That dust settles onto carpets and furniture where it can cause health problems — and irreversible brain damage in children. Federal law requires contractors to contain and clean lead dust carefully during renovation, repair and painting work. Workers have to attend training and the firms will have to earn certification to do the work.

Tamara Rubin, a Portland parent and lead safety advocate is all too familiar with the hazards linked to Lead Paint Exposure. The government and public safety groups have warned homeowners for decades about the dangers of lead paint. Regulators phased out the use of lead in gas and paint years ago. But the risk remains for homes built before lead paint was outlawed in 1978 for residential use.

Generally, the older a home, the higher the risk. Because lead paint was durable, it was most commonly used in trim, kitchens, bathrooms, porches, windows and doors. The National Center for Healthy Housing estimates about 140,000 U.S. children have lead poisoning and that more than 1 million children are at risk each year when their homes are renovated. Parents often don’t pick up on lead poisoning because the symptoms aren’t obvious. But they are dangerous. Lead poisoning can lead …

OSHA will not allow companies to endanger the safety and health of its workers as a means to reduce business expenses,” said Clyde Payne, OSHA’s area director in Jackson, Miss.

OSHA has cited a large corporation with 18 serious safety and health violations for exposing workers to electrical hazards, flaking lead paint, asbestos and other hazards. Proposed fines total $46,340.

Following a safety inspection, OSHA cited the company for 14 serious violations with a proposed penalty of $33,740. The hazards include failing to provide fixed stairs and railings where required; lack of a back-up alarm for a powered industrial truck; failing to block the wheels of trailers being loaded and unloaded; several electrical deficiencies; and failing to provide machine guarding at pinch points between the belt and pulley on the conveyor.

A separate health inspection revealed four serious violations with $12,600 in proposed penalties. These include failing to treat and label insulation-containing asbestos; monitoring for employee exposure to asbestos; failing to keep surfaces free from accumulation of lead from flaking and pealing wall paint; and failing to provide a written hazard communication program addressing how to work safely with hazardous chemicals.

“OSHA will not allow companies to endanger the safety and health of its workers as a means to reduce business expenses,” said Clyde Payne, OSHA’s area director in Jackson, Miss.

For Products to Help You Stay in Compliance, Click on the Image Below or Go to Our Homepage.

(January 30th 2011) Source: http://ohsonline.com/articles/2011/01/30/lead-paint-asbestos-hazards-lead-to-46000-fine-for-miss-firm.aspx…

ROCKLAND, Maine — When someone leaked a video of men sanding the side of an apartment building and letting lead paint chips fly around, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepped in and started counting up the violations. Six of them.

Now the Rockland Contractor faces a minimum of $150,000 in fines from the federal agency.

According to the 22-page EPA complaint, the Contractor was on a vacation in October 2010 when his brother and one of his employees began sanding paint off an outside apartment wall on Park Street. Wentworth had proper lead paint training and certification, but the two men doing the work did not, the EPA wrote. The men neglected to use a sander with a vacuum to suck up the paint chips, to put down tarps, clean up, or contain the paint chips in any way. The 1852 building shed lead paint near the apartments, which housed at least six children, according to the EPA.

“Children could subsequently become exposed to lead by playing in or ingesting the contaminated soil [near their home],” the EPA complaint states. “Children under the age of 6 are most likely to be adversely affected by the presence of lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards.”

This building, which contains four apartments, was home to at least one child under the age of 6.

Lead paint exposure to children “can cause developmental impairment, reading and learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention span, hyperactivity and behavioral problems,” the EPA wrote in a press release …

Banks and the EPA RRP Compliance on Lead Safety Regulations
Even though we knew it was coming, everyone was overwhelmed by the sweeping impact the EPA’s RRP would have. Besides the construction industry, the real estate market has felt the biggest effects. The law affects buyers, sellers, real estate agents, and inspectors. Now, it looks like it’s taking its toll on banks too.

The EPA’s RRP says landlords have to be in compliance with the EPA’s guidelines and hire only EPA certified contractors to run their renovations. Banks that have repossessed homes qualify as landlords under the law until the property is sold. Normally this would not be a problem for banks, except for the fact that property values are plummeting on pre-1978 homes. Now, many banks are getting stuck with low value homes that need lots of work, and it looks like they may not be able to get their money back.

How does this affect you?
As the banks get stuck with more foreclosed homes it cannot fix or sell, it’s going to stop approving people for loans. If your loan is for a pre-1978 home, the banks is most likely going to deny it due to shrinking property values. This will make an already hard to get loan even harder to obtain. The housing market will stagnate, and the already tumultuous real estate market is going to take a big hit.

Contractor Option One
There are a couple options for contractors that can help turn this situation …