Health effects of lead

Child lead poisoning is a major health problem.

• Lead gets in their body when they:
⇒ Put their hands or other things covered with lead dust in their mouths.
⇒ Eat chips of paint or soiled which contains lead.
⇒ Breathe in lead the dust, particularly during renovations that disturb painted surfaces.

• Lead is particularly dangerous for children because:
⇒ Babies and young kids often put their hands and/or other objects in their mouths.
⇒ These objects may have lead dust on them.
⇒ Young kid’s growing bodies absorb more lead.
⇒ Young kid’s brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead.

• If not identified early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can suffer from the following:
⇒ Injury to the brain and nervous system
⇒ Behavior and learning problems, such as hyperactivity
⇒ Slow growth
⇒ Hearing troubles
⇒ Headaches

• Lead is also harmful to adults (in both men and women). Adults can suffer from:
⇒ Reproductive dilemma
⇒ High blood pressure and hypertension
⇒ Nerve disorders
⇒ Memory and attentiveness issues
⇒ Muscle and joint soreness

Get your lead base training for (Click >) Renovator Certification Beaverton Oregon

Lead Based Training - IT’S THE LAW!

Federal law 40 CFR Part 745 requires individuals receive certain information before renovating six square feet or more of painted surfaces in a room for interior project or more that twenty square feet of painted surfaces for exterior projects in housing, “child-occupied facilities” and schools built before 1978.

A “child-occupied facility” means a building or portion of a building, constructed prior to 1978, visited regularly by the same child, under 6 years of age, on at least two different days within any week (Sunday through Saturday period), provided that each day’s visit lasts at least 3 hours and the combined weekly visits last at least 6 hours, and the combined annual visits last at least 60 hours. 

Child-occupied facilities may include, but are not limited to, day care centers, preschools and kindergarten classrooms.  They may be located in target housing or in public or commercial buildings.

April 22, 2010 federal law 40 CFR Part 745 will require contactors that disturb lead based paint in homes, child-occupied facilities and schools built before 1978 to be certified and follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.

Any contractor that “Renovates, Repairs or Paints” (RRP)  must have at least one person that overseas that job that is a Certified Renovator .  This certification must be given by an approved EPA certification provider.

The RRP now overseas and provides all lead safe work practices training to all workers at that job site.  The RRP is also responsible for set up of the work site, safe practices while working on the job site, testing for lead, debris removal, establishing workers clean areas, debris removal, record keeping and cleaning verification procedure.

All workers that have exposure to lead, must be trained in accordance with 40 CFR Part 745 and applicable state requirements (Oregon) OR OSHA 1926.62 and (Washington) WAC 296-155-17625.  Please note both Oregon and Washington are in process of writing their own new code.  At the time of the publication of this manual, they were not in completed or adopted