Howard Shultz's commentary on the new EPA lead paint regulations has been stirring up a hornet's nest.
Shultz's analysis was posted last night on this blog. Today, Walter Olson's Pointoflaw.com linked to it. Traffic has been non-stop. And more than the usual number of comments have come in by phone, email and on the blog post.
Shultz is a Senior Fellow at the Senior Housing and Planning Council [CHPC]. The organization's deconstruction of those new regs is here. And, those wishing to contact Shultz directly can reach him at hshultz@chpcny.org, 212-286-9211, Ext. 110.
One of those responding to Schultz's opinion is Sue Gunderson, head of CLEARCorps, a non-profit whose mission is keeping children healthy. Its primary target is preventing lead poisoning among children. And CLEARCorps has been accomplishing this through education, community-building, research and legislative advocacy on the federal, state and city levels. The organization was founded by the National Paint and Coatings Association.
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Sue Gunderson, head of CLEARCorps, on the new EPA regulations:
"Jane - and your readers - to me it's really too bad that the EPA took so long to develop these regulations in the first place. The lack of action on the EPA's part has created a vacuum which state and local jurisdictions have stepped in to fill for years now.
"Therefore, it is true that going from different cities to different states there are a variety of lead-related laws that landlords and contractors must know and fulfill, depending on the size and geographic location of your dwellings. If the EPA had done its job 10 years ago when this was required, we could have had a reasonable set of national standards that everyone could have followed without a massive guidebook.
"Now we have a set of EPA regulations that are good tools for preventing the contractors and maintenance staff from accidentally poisoning children when they are renovating or performing maintenance on their pre-1978 housing. While the new regulations are not perfect, they will hopefully reduce the rising number of children who are lead-poisoned by well-intentioned but clueless landlords and contractors as they go about their usual business.
"Unfortunately, there are several issue that will make these new regs somewhat frustrating for all. First, they do not adequately protect the contractors and landlords at the end of the project because they only require a 'white glove test' to determine if lead dust exists. Second, there is no money made available by Congress to provide the states with the necessary resources to integrate these new standards into their existing regulations and produce appropriate educational materials and classes for the entities which are meant to comply.
"The next few years will be a test of patience and a lot of discussion among the EPA, states, and the local landlords and contractors to successfully implement the new regulations with the least amount of confusion."
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Sue Gunderson can be reached at CLEARCorps at Sue@clearcorps.org.
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