EPA Lead Certification

In accordance to the EPA's Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule setting up new requirements for firms and individuals performing renovations in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities, Earthgroup is proud to announce that we are EPA certified renovation contractors.

What this means is that contractors that only "Certified Firms" using "Certified Renovators" may advertise or perform certain repairs, maintenance, and painting preparation activities that will disturb painted surfac12es in residential houses, apartments, and child-occupied facilities like schools and day-care centers that were built before 1978. Pre 1980 American housing stock contains more than 3,000,000 tons of lead from lead-based paint and homes built before 1950 contain a substantially higher amount. Ingesting household dust containing lead from chipping or peeling lead paint is the most common cause of lead poisoning in children.

The new rule change follows research that found even at low levels, lead poisoning in children causes:

• intelligence quotient deficiencies
• reading and learning disabilities
• impaired hearing
• reduced attention span
• hyperactivity
• behavior problems

Despite the actions take to eliminate practicable lead-based paint hazards in federally owned, assisted and insured housing, the Federal response to this crisis remains severely limited.

Key purposes of this Act are to:

• Develop a national strategy to build the infrastructure to eliminate lead-based paint hazards in all housing as soon as possible
• Reform the approach to the presence of lead-based paint in housing to implement, on a priority basis, a broader program to evaluate and reduce lead-based paint hazards in the Nation's housing stock
• Establish a workable framework for lead-based paint hazard evaluation and reduction and by ending the confusion over reasonable standards of care
• Ensure the existence of lead-based paint hazards is considered during the development of Government housing policies and in the sale, rental, and renovation of homes and apartments
• Mobilize national resources through a partnership among all levels of government and the private sector, to develop the most promising, cost-effective methods for evaluating and reducing lead-based paint hazards
• Reduce the threat of childhood lead poisoning in housing owned, assisted, or transferred by the Federal Government
• Educate the public concerning the hazards and sources of lead-based paint poisoning and steps to reduce and eliminate these hazards

For additional information regarding these new changes, visit the EPA's website.