Posted on 25th Dec 2010 @ 7:00 PM

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved two lead testing kits and trained 421,000 people as enforcement looms for the new federal lead-safe work rules. The EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) has posted preliminary results of the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) assessment of lead test kits on its website The ETV testing was conducted pursuant to the 2008, Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) regulation, to determine if any manufacturer-submitted lead test kits meet both a false negative and a false positive response criterion, as required in the rule.

The OPPT said it was reporting preliminary results, because the status and implications of the ETV & renovators, lead test kit manufacturers, and training providers. Based on the preliminary ETV results, no new kits meet both the false negative and false positive criteria, the agency said in a statement. Therefore, pursuant to the RRP regulation, EPA will continue to recognize the LeadCheck test kit and the State of Massachusetts lead test kit only.

One more test kit may be recognized before Sept. 1, 2010 The EPA said. For more information on the kits or testing, contact Sam Brown at 202-566-0490 (brown.sam@epa.gov)  or Erik Winchester at 202-564-645 (winchester.erik@epa.gov). Full enforcement of the RRP rules is NOW HERE. The deadline for certification of firms, originally set for April 22, had been extended to Oct. 1, 2010 and has now passed. Individual renovators had until Sept. 30 to enroll in an EPA-accredited certification class. Certification must be completed by Dec. 31, 2010 and the date is approaching fast that everyone doing renovation work in pre-1978 homes. As of July 22, 2010 the EPA had accredited 286 training providers who had conducted more than 18,300 courses, training an estimated 421,000 people, the EPA agency said. The increasing demand for training before the deadline has slowed traffic on EPA's site, where contractors can search for an EPA-accredited training provider. The EPA says it is working to improve the system. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has joined the list of states that the EPA has authorized to administer their own RRP program in lieu of the EPA regulations. Contractors and training providers in these areas should contact the appropriate state office. 

For information in these states clink on the following links:

• Massachusetts
• Wisconsin
• Iowa
• North Carolina
• Mississippi
• Kansas
• Rhode Island
• Utah
• Oregon

For more information on Lead Test Kits, Tyvek Suits, Tacky Mats, Lead Wipes, LeadCheck, Gloves, n100 respirators see www.LEADPAINTEPASUPPLIES.COM