Programa de Renovación, Reparación y Pintura de Plomo (RRP)

Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program

Any renovation, repair, or painting (RRP) project in a pre-1978 home or building can easily create dangerous lead dust. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that RRP projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities and preschools built before 1978 be performed by lead-safe certified contractors. Generally, EPA’s Lead RRP rule does not apply to homeowners doing RRP projects in their own homes. However, it does apply if you rent all or part of your home, operate a child care center in your home or if you buy, renovate, and sell homes for profit (i.e., a house flipper).

Older Homes and Buildings

If your home was built before 1978, it is more likely to have lead-based paint. In 1978, the federal government banned consumer uses of lead-based paint, but some states banned it even earlier.

Lead-based paint is still present in millions of homes, normally under layers of newer paint. If the paint is in good shape, the lead-based paint is usually not a problem. Deteriorating lead-based paint (peeling, chipping, chalking, cracking, damaged, or damp) is a hazard and needs immediate attention.

Lead-based paint may also be a hazard when found on surfaces that children can chew or that get a lot of wear-and-tear, such as:

• Windows and window sills;
• Doors and door frames; and
• Stairs, railings, banisters, and porches.

Soil, Yards and Playgrounds

Soil, yards and playgrounds can become contaminated when exterior lead-based paint from houses or buildings flakes or peels and gets into the soil. Soil may also be contaminated from past use of leaded gasoline in cars, from industrial sources, or even from contaminated sites, including former lead smelters. Lead is also naturally occurring and it can be found in high concentrations in some areas.

Lead in soil can be ingested as a result of hand-to-mouth activity that is common for young children and from eating vegetables that may have taken up lead from soil in the garden. Lead in soil may also be inhaled if resuspended in the air or tracked into your house thereby spreading the contamination.

Dust

Lead in household dust results from indoor sources such as old lead-based paint on surfaces that are frequently in motion or bump or rub together (such as window frames), deteriorating old lead-based paint on any surface, home repair activities, tracking lead-contaminated soil from the outdoors into the indoor environment, or even from lead dust on clothing worn at a job site.

Even in well-maintained homes, lead dust can form when lead-based paint is scraped, sanded or heated during home repair activities. Lead paint chips and dust can get on surfaces and objects that people touch.

Products

Lead has been used for a long time in a wide variety of products found in and around our homes, including painted toys, furniture and toy jewelry; cosmetics; food or liquid containers; and plumbing materials.

That favorite dump truck or rocking chair handed down in the family, antique doll furniture or toy jewelry could contain lead or lead-based paint. 

Drinking Water

Lead can enter drinking water through corrosion of plumbing materials, especially where the water has high acidity or low mineral content that corrodes pipes and fixtures. Homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solder.

In 2011, changes to the Safe Drinking Water Act reduced the maximum allowable lead content to be a weighted average of 0.25 percent calculated across the wetted surface of pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings and fixtures and 0.2 percent for solder and flux. The most common problem is with brass or chrome-plated brass faucets and fixtures with lead solder.

Corrosion is a dissolving or wearing away of metal caused by a chemical reaction between water and your plumbing. A number of factors are involved in the extent to which lead enters the water including the chemistry of the water (acidity and alkalinity), the amount of lead it comes into contact with, how long the water stays in the plumbing materials and the presence of protective scales or coatings inside the plumbing materials.

Certified Renovator Responsibilities

Certified renovators are responsible for ensuring overall compliance with the RRP Program’s requirements for lead-safe work practices at renovations they are assigned.

A certified renovator like I am:

• Must provide on-the-job training to other workers (who have not taken the certified renovator training course) on the lead-safe work practices to be used in performing their assigned tasks.
• Must be physically present at the worksite when warning signs are posted, while the work-area containment is being established and while the work-area cleaning is performed.
• Must regularly direct work being performed by other individuals to ensure that lead-safe work practices are being followed, including maintaining the integrity of the containment barriers and ensuring that dust or debris does not spread beyond the work area.
• When requested by the party contracting for renovation services, must use an EPA-recognized test kit or must collect paint chip samples, submit them to an EPA-recognized laboratory, and obtain test results from the laboratory to determine whether components affected by the renovation contain lead-based paint. Note: you must assume lead-based paint is present for housing and buildings covered by the RRP Rule, unless testing is done that determines the components affected are lead-free.
• Must be available, either on-site or by telephone, at all times renovations are being conducted.
• Must perform project cleaning verification.
• Must have with them at the worksite copies of their initial course completion certificate and their most recent refresher course completion certificate.
• Must prepare required records.

You can contact me for any project or relative information.

Andrelina Mujica León

Resource: https://www.epa.gov/lead/lead-renovation-repair-and-painting-program

Información en Español: https://espanol.epa.gov/plomo