Lead Paint and EPA New Rule Exemptions for Working with Lead Paint

Get The Lead Out® keeps all of our customers informed as to the latest rules and guidelines from the EPA with regards to Lead Paint inspections, Lead  Paint testing, and Lead Paint removal.  Because we work with so many large apartment communities, government properties, and hotel properties, we always want our clients to understand the regulations when 100% knowledge is not present about Lead Paint contamination or presence.

There are some exemptions to the new EPA rules for working with Lead Paint.

Small lead-based Repairs & Maintenance Fix-ups are excluded as follows:

Excluded Lead-based Work:

• Interior work that disturbs less than 6 feet.
• Exterior work that is 20 feet or less that DO NOT involve;
• window replacement
• demolition
• projects involving prohibited practices (e.g. torch removal of paint)
• Renovations that involve identified/specific lead-free components.

Also exempted are senior housing and commercial buildings where children under 6 years of age DO NOT visit more than:

• 2 or more days/week
• 3 or more hours/visit
• 6 or more hours/week
• 60 or more hours/year

The EPA regulations and rules can be confusing when it comes to Lead Paint safety.  We at Get The Lead Out® will always want to reside on the side of safety and real-world knowledge of the presence of dangerous Lead Paint prior to any type of remodeling, painting or refurbishing work is done.

To find out more about our Lead Paint testing, inspecting and removing programs, please call Pete Hubicki at Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz. 

 

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Apartment Lead Paint Inspections - EPA Gets Tough on Apartment Property Owners

Get The Lead Out® wants to advise our multi-tenant property owners that new EPA lead removal laws went into effect on April  22, 2011 and require owners to take pro-active measures to remove any and all lead paint from their properties. If you haven’t had your property inspected and tested you should do ASAP — especially if your property was built prior to 1978.

EPA fines are steep and expect competent contractors removing and handling lead-based paint work to increase their prices for doing work on pre-1978 buildings.

Tenants and their attorneys will no doubt focus on whether you’re in compliance or not — even if there is NO lead poisoning issue; lead-based paint or not could get you fined for a violation!

To learn more about these EPA lead paint testing regulations, please call Pete Hubicki at Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz.  We can help you uncover any threats or presence of lead paint on your properties!  Get The Lead Out is a member of the National Supplier’s Council, National Apartment Association.

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Lead Paint Poisoning Can Happen with Renovations in Older Apartment Homes

Get The Lead Out® is always educating homeowners, property owners and residents about the hidden dangers of lead paint poisoning, especially during renovations and remodeling projects.

Lead paint can easily be released into the environment by simple acts of sanding and painting.  Beginning April 22, 2010, federal law requires that contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb more than six square feet of paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and trained to follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.  That is directly from the EPA!

Where is Lead Found Around Apartment Homes?

In general, the older your home or apartment building, the greater possibility that there may be a lead paint issue.

• Paint - peeling, chipping or cracked paint chips (also from sanding)
• Soil around a home - soil can pick up lead from exterior paint
• Household dust - lead paint dust being tracked inside from the immediate outside area
• Drinking water - your apartment building could have older plumbing pipes that have lead or lead solder
• Old painted toys and furniture
• Hobbies that use lead - like pottery, stained glass or refinishing furniture

For apartment building managers and property owners, download this special brochure about the dangers of lead paint poisoning from the EPA.

Lead-based paint is a hazard that can be corrected. Get The Lead Out® works with multi-tenant property owners and apartment communities with on-going lead paint and asbestos testing and abatement programs.  For more information about our lead paint testing and asbestos testing programs for multi-tenant properties and apartment communities, please call Pete Hubicki at Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz.

Get The Lead Out® is a member of the National Supplier’s Council of the National Apartment Association.

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Multi-tenant Properties & Apartment Communities Rely on Get The Lead Out® for Lead Paint & Asbestos Testing

Get The Lead Out® is equipped with both the knowledge and experience to assist you with your environmental issues. Get The Lead Out® has been involved in thousands of lead and asbestos projects in small, residential properties as well as major projects in apartments, shopping centers, and industrial sites across the United States.

Lead-based paint, which contains measurable quantities of lead, has the potential to be a health hazard. Use of the paint in residential buildings was outlawed in the late 1970’s, but many older residences may still contain lead-based paint.

Health Hazards of Lead Paint

The ingestion of lead through lead dust or paint chips poses a significant health hazard; children are more negatively affected  than adults because they absorb more lead into their bloodstream. Children can absorb 30 to 75 percent of the lead that reaches their digestive tracts, while adults absorb closer to 11 percent. Lead disrupts brain chemistry, interfering with the function of neurotransmitters. High levels of lead in a child’s bloodstream can lead to brain damage, nervous system problems, learning disabilities, behavioral issues like hyperactivity, stunted growth, hearing issues, and headaches. In adults, lead poisoning can cause reproductive issues (including miscarriage or stillbirth), hypertension, digestive issues, nerve problems, muscle and joint pain, and difficulties remembering information or concentrating. Extremely high levels of lead can cause anemia and affect kidney function, and can so damage the nervous system as to lead to seizures, coma, and death.

Lead-based paint is a hazard that can be corrected. Get The Lead Out® works with multi-tenant property owners and apartment communities with on-going lead paint and asbestos testing and abatement programs.  For more information about our lead paint testing and asbestos testing programs for multi-tenant properties and apartment communities, please call Pete Hubicki at Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz.

Get The Lead Out® is a member of the National Supplier’s Council of the National Apartment Association.

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Charlotte’s Get The Lead Out Joins the Hilton Hotel Chain Disaster Response Program

Get The Lead Out® was just selected by the Hilton national hotel chain to be involved with their national disaster response program for the eastern seaboard!

Get The Lead Out® is a nationwide lead paint, asbestos, mold and radon gas testing and removal company based here in Charlotte.  We have performed thousands of tests and inspections on all types of buildings and houses since we began in 1993.

Hilton selected Get The Lead Out® to participate in the Hilton Disaster Response Program for our depth of services and experience pertaining to detecting and removing potentially hazardous materials that might surface following some type of disaster.

“Buildings that were constructed prior to the mid-1970′s could have used lead-based paint or asbestos in some part of the building process,” said Get The Lead Out® Principal Scientist Pete Hubicki.  “If there is damage to parts of a building from a tornado or other natural disaster, or maybe a fire, some of these materials could be released or exposed if they existed.”

Get The Lead Out®’s emergency response duties will include identifying possible material threats, isolating these hazards, and safely removing them.

If your company would like to establish an emergency response action plan or program, please call Pete Hubicki at Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz.

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Charlotte Asbestos Testing for a Standard Home Begins at $250 plus $15 per Sample!

Get The Lead Out® has tested thousands of homes, apartment buildings and commercial buildings for Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) since 1993.  We are a professional company with experienced, qualified, licensed asbestos inspectors that will uncover any asbestos-containing material on your property!  It is estimated that thirty million tons of asbestos building materials were used in the U.S. between 1900 and 1975 with probably eighty to ninety percent of that still in place.  This is why it can be found in many commercial and residential buildings built before 1975.  Because of its needle-like shape, an asbestos fiber can stick to lung tissue if inhaled and cause an inflammation.

Types of Professional Asbestos Tests

There are two types of professional asbestos tests that Get The Lead Out® inspectors use to identify the presence of asbestos.  One is a basic test and the other is a more advanced test.  As asbestos fibers cannot be seen without the use of a microscope, these two methods are the recognized tests that the EPA utilizes.

PLM (Polarized Light Microscopy) Test
The EPA requires that the asbestos content of suspect materials be determined by analyzing samples with polarized light microscopy (PLM). PLM analysis results give the percent and type of asbestos in the sample. The asbestos content of manufactured items ranges from one percent to 100 percent.  Our experienced and licensed asbestos inspectors carefully target and collect enough individual samples to proficiently determine the presence of asbestos.  These samples are then shared with our EPA-approved laboratory partners. With this method, a small amount of the sample is crushed and placed on a microscope slide using the appropriate refractive index oil. Polarized light is used to observe the many optical properties of asbestos fibers that allow the microscopist to distinguish it from non-asbestos fibers.

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) Test
TEM is also used to identify and quantify asbestos in a bulk sample. TEM uses a beam of electrons from a filament in a vacuum. The TEM's electron beam passes through the sample and an image is displaced onto a screen. Using an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and a computer system, information about the fiber's elemental properties can be gathered and graphed in their appropriate ratios. The higher magnification used by the TEM allows for more accurate asbestos concentration estimations in samples that contain very little asbestos (less than 5%). TEM samples are ashed at 480°C for 6-8 hours to eliminate the organic binder and/or tar material, and are then treated with acid for a few minutes to eliminate the carbonate material. This allows hidden asbestos fibers to surface and be easily noticed and identified under the TEM.

Cost of Basic PLM Asbestos Test
A basic PLM Asbestos Test with Get The Lead Out® costs $250 plus $15 per sample.  The number of samples collected at your home depends upon the initial survey and findings of our inspector.  The variance in cost is tied to the number of samples that are collected for testing.

The cost of a TEM test varies widely and we can give you an estimate for bulk sample collecting under this very advanced asbestos testing method.

Please call Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz to find out more about PLM and TEM asbestos testing for your home.  Peace of mind and general safety for your family is the very reason we provide these asbestos tests. 

 

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Charlotte Asbestos Testing & Asbestos Removal Before You Remodel

Are you thinking about remodeling your home?  Was your home built before the 1970’s?  There could be a chance that some of the materials used in the construction of your home contain asbestos.  Get The Lead Out® can professionally assist you with the identification, assessment, and management of asbestos. Our expertise, training, and up-to-date regulatory knowledge allows us to provide comprehensive and complete asbestos testing and consultation.

What is asbestos?

Asbestos is a mineral fiber. It can be positively identified only with a special type of microscope. There are several types of asbestos fibers. In the past, asbestos was added to a variety of products to strengthen them and to provide heat insulation and fire resistance.

What could contain asbestos in your home today?

Most products made today do not contain asbestos. those few products made which still contain asbestos that could be inhaled are required to be labeled as such. however, until the 1970s, many types of building products and insulation materials used in homes contained asbestos.

Common products that might have contained asbestos in the past, and conditions which may release fibers, include:

Resilient floor tiles (vinyl asbestos, asphalt, and rubber), the backing on vinyl sheet flooring, and adhesives used for installing floor tile. sanding tiles can release fibers. so may scraping or sanding the backing of sheet flooring during removal.

Patching and joint compounds for walls and ceilings, textured paints and ceiling texture. sanding, scraping, or drilling these surfaces may release asbestos.

Houses built between 1930 and 1950 may have asbestos as insulation.

Steam pipes, boilers, and furnace ducts insulated with an asbestos blanket or asbestos paper tape. these materials may release asbestos fibers if damaged, repaired, or removed improperly.

Cement sheet, millboard, and paper used as insulation around furnaces and wood burning stoves. repairing or removing appliances may release asbestos fibers. so may cutting, tearing, sanding, drilling, or sawing insulation.

Door gaskets in furnaces, wood stoves, and coal stoves. worn seals can release asbestos fibers during use.

Soundproofing or decorative material sprayed on walls and ceilings. loose, crumbly, or water-damaged material may release fibers. so will sanding, drilling, or scraping the material.

Get The Lead Out® will make sure make sure that the asbestos inspection will include a complete visual examination and the careful collection and lab analysis of samples. If asbestos is present in your home, our report will provide a written evaluation describing its location and give recommendations for correction or prevention.

For more information about residential asbestos inspections, please call Get The Lead Out® at 704-376-3594 or email peteh@gettheleadout.biz.  We look forward to working with you and keeping your home safe from the dangers of asbestos.

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