There Are No Two Ways Around EPA Certification
EPA certification, or lead certification, is not a choice; it is a requirement. For any building professional who works in facilities constructed before 1978, EPA lead training is mandatory. Due to the increasing health hazard of lead poisoning, the EPA has put the lead RRP rule in place to regulate best practices for renovation, repair, and painting work in pre-1978 homes, schools, and childcare facilities.
Now, building professionals are held accountable by the EPA for adhering to lead safe working procedures that aim to reduce the risk of lead based paint exposure. Such precautions may include wearing specialized equipment throughout the lead renovation, or using mandated vacuums to clean up lead based paint chips. Containment and cleanup are two crucial components that a lead training course reviews, as these two aspects provide opportunities to minimize lead based paint dust, the culprit in most cases of lead paint exposure and lead poisoning.
A lead training course satisfies the prerequisite for the EPA exam, which enables a building professional to obtain his or her lead certification. The lead course prepares students to take the lead certification test, which is mandatory under EPA regulations for any renovator whose work occurs in pre-1978 buildings. When you take into account EPA fines for violating the lead RRP rule, fines which can reach up to $37,500 per infraction, per day, you may be more inclined to enroll in a lead training course, which represents a relatively minute time and financial commitment.
Anyone who is interested in breaking into renovation work or for someone who already runs a successful renovation business, EPA certification is a great way to keep up-to-date with national standards for safe renovations. Your EPA certification in lead safe renovations is an 8-hour lead training course away.
EPA Certification For Lead Safe Renovations
Even if you consider yourself an expert renovator with decades of experience transforming properties, you still need to get your EPA certification in order to protect yourself from massive fines for violating the EPA's lead RRP rule. This EPA rule pertains to safe working practices for any building professional whose work disturbs lead paint and lead paint chips, specifically in pre-1978 homes and facilities occupied by children. The EPA has enacted the lead paint safety regulation to make EPA certification mandatory in order to minimize the public health threat of lead paint exposure.
What does this mean for you? Well, if you continue to conduct renovation, repair, or painting work in pre-1978 buildings, the EPA can fine you up to $37,500 per incident, per day. Fines of that scope could put an end to your career, so why not invest in an EPA certification course. You can complete EPA certification training for lead safe renovators from the comfort of your own home, right at your computer. The lead training certification course has an online training component and a field component where you put your classroom knowledge to practical use. Upon completing the EPA certification lead course, you will be prepared to pass the lead exam and resume your renovation work safely and legally.
The EPA is holding building professionals responsible for putting an end to lead based paint exposure. The more you know about how to safely contain and clean up your working area, and which tools to use to measure the safety of your work, the better prepared you will be to comply with the EPA's lead regulations and to avoid the costly fines associated with violating the lead RRP rule. Green jobs are on the rise, and so is the EPA's involvement in the green building industry. By enrolling in an EPA certification course, you can stay abreast of how this industry is changing and growing.
EPA Certification Includes Pre-Renovation Disclosure Training
A crucial component of a lead certification course is thorough training that covers the EPA’s lead RRP legislation. In order to comply with EPA rules, students of a lead training course must understand the intricacies of the legislation and be well aware of the repercussions of non-compliance. To this end, the EPA has designed approve course material that EPA certification providers must cover in a lead training course that prepares students to take the EPA certification exam for lead renovators.
EPA legislation surrounding lead safe renovations in pre-1978 homes and childcare facilities outlines what rules contractors must follow in order to reduce the risk of lead exposure to building occupants and to themselves. All contractors must give building tenants a required brochure drafted by the EPA that informs them of the hazards of lead paint exposure and the associated legislation that impacts contractors and renovators. If a contractor fails to give the tenant the required pre-renovation disclosure forms, then the EPA can fine this contractor to the extent that the contractor or his firm could go out of business entirely.
When you consider the scope of EPA fines for violators of the lead RRP rule, you might be more inclined to register for your EPA certification sooner rather than later. The cost of the course pales in comparison to some EPA fines that can reach up to $37,500 per violation, per day. Complying with the EPA rule is much easier once you understand what to do as soon as you arrive to a pre-1978 building and how to best limit the exposure of migrating lead based paint chips while you are providing renovation, repair, or painting services.
EPA certification is mandatory for any building professional whose work involves renovation, repair, or painting in pre-1978 buildings, so register for a lead certification training course today.
Get Lead RRP Certified With EPA Certification Training
The EPA's lead RRP rule requires all contractors and renovators to obtain their lead certification in order to engage in any activity that can disturb lead paint on surfaces in pre-1978 homes, childcare facilities, rentals, and schools. Because the use of lead paint in buildings was legal before 1978, the lead RRP rule pertains specifically to these pre-1978 facilities. EPA certification is mandatory, so you should not hesitate to obtain yours.
The EPA lead RRP rule also specifies the fines for violating the rule; a renovator who replaces a skylight in a home built in 1973 could be subject to a fine of up to $37,500 per day. For anyone in the renovation, repair, or painting, EPA certification is a must-have. You can complete an EPA lead certification course online at your own convenience. There is an additional part of the course that is required for EPA certification. The field testing component is a hands-on training that helps students prepare for their lead certification exam.
An EPA lead training class will not only teach you about the lead RRP rule and how to comply with it, but it will also teach you to recognize lead hazards and to minimize the migration of lead dust outside of your working area by implementing the necessary containment procedures. Lead safety can reduce the health hazards associated with lead exposure, so the sooner you obtain your EPA certification, the better. Becoming a lead certified renovator is something you can do in about 8 hours. The EPA is serious about holding renovators, builders, property managers, and realtors accountable for disclosing lead risks to building occupants and taking further measures to protect the public from lead based paint exposure.
Lead paint safety is something that every renovator can improve upon - learn how to be a lead safe renovator by taking an EPA training course to obtain your lead certification.
Lead Paint Safety: The Danger Is In The Dust
While lead paint chips are easy for children to pick from a surface and sweet like candy, making them desirable for munching on, the dust that construction work creates in a lead home is far more detrimental to the building’s occupants. Lead paint dust is easy to overlook because it is so fine and it can easily migrate beyond a working area that has not been properly contained. Say you are a renovator installing a new ceiling fan in a home that was built in 1974. This home was constructed before the use of lead paint was made illegal when its health dangers were discovered. This 1974 home, which contains lead paint, will need to be tackled differently than a renovation in a home that was built after 1978.
For example, the renovator installing the ceiling fan in the 1974 home will need to be EPA certified in lead RRP (renovation, repair, and painting) before working in the lead home. Additionally, this renovator will need to give a required brochure entitled How To Protect Your Family From Lead In Your Home to all occupants or prospective buyers of the home. This brochure underscores the health dangers of lead poisoning, and the EPA also provides a form that a renovator can give to an occupant to verify that the occupant received the brochure.
On the technical side, the renovator cannot simply install the ceiling fan without taking the necessary containment measures to limit the migration of lead dust, which can poison occupants of the home. One such containment system is the Zipwall dust barrier. The Zipwall dust barrier comes equipped with a heavy duty zipper and a standard zipper that allow you to create an entrance and exit point for your contained working area. The plastic walls of the Zipwall dust barrier isolate your working area from the rest of the site, keeping lead dust within the zippered barrier. Renovators can improve upon their lead paint safety measures using a dust barrier such as the Zipwall.
Lead Testing May Hold The Key To Sustainable Business
How can someone determine that a home, school, or childcare facility actually contains lead paint? Well, the EPA has approved a number of lead testing kits that have been found to accurately confirm the presence of lead in paint. An EPA-approved lead testing kit can be the difference between enormous fines for violating lead-safe practices and continued profitability be being able to work in homes that were previously suspected to contain lead. In other words, a contractor can prove that lead paint safety best practices are not necessary using a lead testing kit that the bears the EPA stamp of approval.
A scenario that may call for the use of a lead testing kit might be when a customer requires the services of a contractor in your company who has not finished an EPA-approved lead training course or who has completed the course but whose certificate has not yet been granted by the EPA. Rather than risk this contractor incurring costly fines for illegally working in a home or school that might contain lead paint, you can instead present the results of an EPA-approved lead testing kit to prove that your firm is in compliance with EPA rules concerning lead based paint safety.
Contractors, beware, the fines that the EPA can enact are not cheap. As these fines accrue, you could find yourself struggling to stay in business for violating EPA regulations. A safe bet would be to invest in EPA lead training for every employee in your firm as soon as possible in order to continue having access to the widest customer base possible. When you consider how many business opportunities you might miss out on by not being able to work in pre-1978 homes, it hopefully becomes easier to see the value proposition behind lead testing and lead certification.