Will Regulation Protect Against Poisoning?

I have never been involved in the painting, coating, or renovation business but I can understand the need for such regulation. Like asbestos we are still dealing with lead paints and covered leaded paint walls in many buildings. If someone needs to be the lead in the lead awareness, who better than the licensed contractor. It will only enhance the contractor's profile by being trained in the handling of lead. I would not consider it over regulating but look at it as the opportunity presented.

We should be concerned about lead in our environment, whether it is toys from China, leaded fuels, old corroded water pipes, drinking water, or bio-fouled wells. Understanding the harm lead can do to the unborn and the young nervous system and retardation should be cause enough. Learning about it is a real good thing. Being capable of responding when you come across lead in your workplace is better yet.

Having watched a lengthy training video on these lead-safe work practices I have some misgivings about the effects of these new requirements.

Is this going to turn into another profitable scam like mandatory termite tenting or so called toxic mold remediation whenever a house is sold?

Another issue that nobody mentions is what the painting contractors will do with all the plastic sheeting that contains lead bearing dust from paint removal that could just as safely be covered over with a new paint coat. Being lead contaminated means that it can't be recycled the way plastic sheet currently is and it can't be put directly in the landfills either.

I think there will be a wonderful business opportunity for the people who get to do the $(3 figures) test required by the law when a landlord rents a pre 1978 property to a new tenant.

Ed Weldon

İt will turn out to be like the test for a general contractors license in most states - where you have to take a class for 3 months to learn the stupid answers the test demands - not the correct answer but the one the testing unit wants. İ believe it is a useless government employee making jobs for more useless government employees.

I ran a water treatment and monitoring company for a long time. When regulation hit our industry the sh*t hit the fan. Imagine having to license operators of water treatment plants, at least that was the thought several years ago. Once the reluctance to be regulated was overcome the industry thrived. We all understand that we don't want a municipality taking someone off its welfare rolls and placing that individual in care of your water supply (this happened many times). It is important to have knowledgeable people in some industries. Overall the regulations improved everyone's safety. I have seen the same issues evolve in the well drilling and pump installation fields. Once accepted, the industry sat on committees and directed the regulators and promoted change where needed. The industry looked at regulation as a means to keep out the fly by night drillers. The same situation in Canada has been also advocated by the American industry. In fact these two countries have mutual testing and licensing recognition.

With regard to lead, my experience has been in water supplies. Our company had the opportunity to sample several hundred drilled water wells for aboriginal peoples. These were wells serving individual houses and not shared communal wells. It was found that 35% of these wells had levels of lead over 0.1 mg/L and many actually over the limit max of 1.0 mg/L. Even the low levels were originally thought to be a mistake as lead is not very soluble in water. Retesting confirmed our original results. What we did notice is that a whenever lead appeared in the water, the markers for bio-fouling also appeared. Bio-fouling can create conditions favoring the microbiological mining of lead ores like lead sulfate (anglesite) in the bedrock and lead to the mobilization of lead in the water. A lot of social issues with ADD and FAS may have been really caused by lead poisoning. The lead was abated in every well where it was cleaned, defouled, purged, and placed on a regular maintenance program.

It is not just aboriginals that can experience the elevated lead, but any rural residence where the well is poorly maintained. From my experience that includes almost all of them. The water wells contaminated with lead via the bio-fouling route is still not well documented nor understood. The problem is that the lead in water from bio-fouling is under the radar. I for one would like to ring more alarms about issues caused by bio-fouling water wells.

Regulation is a pain in the butt for everyone. I for one would not place a young child in a room where I suspected lead paint was once used. Regulation need not be a money grab but there are costs to insure that the right people are doing the right job. I also assume that the costs are a one-off fee and not encumbered with annual renewal fees applied. Upgraded courses can be offered as required. We regulate a lot of things in life and most are only from a common sense stand. Ensuring houses and workplaces are actually safe is only common sense. Lead can be dangerous if exposure is prolonged over many years. The opening blog article explains the results of exposure to us all. However it should be noted that sometimes lead poisoning comes quicker when delivered in higher dosages and high velocities.

Come on - lead is not a good thing but we all grew up with it. The idea is to take care and use caution - not to panic. İ don't think you can let the kid out of the house - there are too many dangerous things out there. The water treatment companies in the US regulated - if so maybe it would work for municipal water - certainly not industry. The home water purification segment is totally full of hucksters and shysters.

Water treatment regulations only apply down to a number of residential units or something like 50 persons served. Home water treatment by the individual owners is not regulated, just the watyer they receive at the home from the City of local water agency is.

Private rural residences served by a single well are mostly unregulated in terms of operation, sampling, and the applied treatment. The construction and location of the well are usually under some form of regulation in NA and I believe Europe. Mandated testing is sorely lacking and so are the knowledgeable people base to evaluate these types of wells. I believe better regs would lead to better knowledge, application, and safer rural water. As an example many wells in private homes I have looked are have a full blown chlorination system but there is methane present. Chlorinated methane leads to carcinogenic byproducts which are not removed by activated carbon. Is regulation required? You bet.

Like it or not regulation is always going to come about if there are deemed problems. Prior to 1976, according to Wicki, the mean level of blood lead was 13 μg/dL with a max of 10 μg/dL cause for alarm. Studies had shown that when levels exceeded the max the average IQ dropped by 6.7 points. When lead was removed from gasoline in 1976 these blood average levels dropped to 3.9. I don't know if kids IQs have improved as a result but, Yeah we grew up with that unregulated lead in gasoline. Maybe we stymied a few Einsteins with lead or put a few people into the moron class. I like to think that that action helped my kids all born after 1976. The lead in the paint issue is an issue because someone found it to be a problem. The regulations are only meant to address that issue. What is the big deal? Maybe only people who live in new lead free house can enjoy this advantage. Because it once was does not mean we stick our head in the sand.

When I went to school (1950s) nearly every kid smoked. I think it was the Jimmy Dean image or something like extreme peer pressure. I was lucky and manged to quit early. Today, anti smoking regulation where I live prevents smoking in the workplace, public buildings, and anywhere near exits of buildings. Workplace has even been extended to mean work vans. I am seeing this happening in a lot of NA jurisdictions. When in Europe you will see lots of smokers visible. I think as health care cost soar you will see them implement new smoking rules.

Don't get me wrong, I think government should keeps its nose out of many things but not when it comes to things I cannot control like lead in the environment. Or smoking, or speeding, or drilling off shore.

Actually governmental interference is the reason I don't live in the US any longer. I prefer less regulations and I will watch out for myself. Unc Sam gets his nose in far too much in some areas while ignoring others. The Wiki is only a fair source of information as entries are often made by people with an agenda. If you have a thousand people each make their own list of what the government should or should not regulate I expect not much would be left over.