Joint EPA/HUD Renovation Training Curriculum

LEAD SAFETY FOR REMODELING, REPAIR, AND PAINTING (EPA 747-B-03-001/2) July, 2003

EPA and HUD developed this updated training course to instruct renovators, painters, and maintenance personnel how to work safely in homes with lead-based paint. The course is interactive with hands-on activities for practicing the skills workers need to avoid creating lead hazards in the homes where they work.

This course is approved by HUD, in accordance with the Lead-Safe Housing Rule (24 CFR Part 35), for training contractors working in federally owned or assisted housing. EPA strongly recommends this training for all contractors who perform renovation, remodeling, painting, maintenance in residential housing built before 1978 to protect the families that live in these homes as well as the workers and their families.

Lead-based paint was used in homes until 1978 when the Consumer Product Safety Commission restricted its use in residential dwellings. It can be found both inside and outside the home on windows, doors, walls, and other building components. When intact, the paint does not pose a danger. However, as it deteriorates over time, or when it is disturbed during common renovation and painting activities, it creates lead dust hazards that can contaminate a home. Children and adults can swallow this dust through ordinary hand-to-mouth actions like eating and playing. This exposure to lead can lead to serious health problems. In children, lead damages the brain and nervous system at a critical developmental phase. Children who are exposed to lead often have behavioral and cognitive problems and have difficulty in school. Adults may suffer high blood pressure, damage to kidneys, and other ill effects.

Renovation, remodeling, and painting contractors can help prevent lead poisoning by changing their work practices to create less dust. To help teach contractors these practices, EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics and HUD's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control collaborated on this course that provides step-by-step instruction about how to perform common work activities in a safe manner. Steps involve work area containment to keep dust from spreading, working with safe methods that generate less dust, and cleaning up using methods that effectively remove lead hazards when the work is done.

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