Renovation and remodeling contractors' requirements under the new regulation include containing work sites with plastic and thoroughly cleaning up lead paint dust stirred up during work, The New York Times reported.
About 38 million units of housing stock are potentially affected by the rule, according to EPA officials.
"We think it will be very effective," Steve Owens, assistant administrator for the EPA's office of prevention, pesticides and toxic substances, told the Times. "It's a rule designed to address one of the major sources of lead pollution."
Legislation directing the EPA to propose the regulation was passed by Congress in 1992. The EPA finally finished the rule in 2008 after a lawsuit from environmental and public interest groups, the newspaper said.
More Hope in Chains.
Are the contractors supposed to test the paint to see if it has lead or are they just supposed to assume that in an older house it does?
LOL, they won’t be coming near my house. Those ‘NO TRESPASSING - OWNER WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR HUNTING ACCIDENTS’ signs alway make township inspectors and other government meddlers decide it might be a good idea to go pester somebody else.