New Hampshire Contractors Fined

For immediate release:

Manchester, November 21, 2012.

For more information, contact:

Kate Kirkwood.

Kate@KKirkwood.com

603-781-4304

New Hampshire contractors fined

The EPA/HUD lead safety rule (renovate, repair and paint) has been in effect since April of 2010.  However, we have just recently seen significant enforcement resulting in FINES in New Hampshire and surrounding States.

Recently two NH contractors have been fined:  Exterior Images of Derry,  and  Kindred Painting, LLC of Dover

  

Hundreds of children are lead poisoned every year in New Hampshire, and currently there are approximately 10,000 lead poisoned children in our schools. The damage from this disease can be permanent, and includes brain disorders, learning disabilities, and decreased IQ.

Negative economic impacts in New Hampshire associated with lost future income, special education costs, and juvenile justice service costs linked to childhood lead poisoning have been estimated at between $141.1 and $345.7 million dollars annually

  

Lead poisoning is a serious problem in NH, and particularly in Manchester, where an estimated 14,000 homes still contain lead paint. As a "universal screening community” All children in the city of Manchester should be tested for lead at ages one and two. The same is true in any community, where a child  lives in a home that was built before 1978, and there has been renovation, or there is a chipping, peeling paint. Approximately 1/3 of children who are lead poisoned in New Hampshire, live in a home  that was renovated within the past six months.

New England housing stock is the oldest in the nation; over 138,000 homes and apartments in New Hampshire communities were built before 1950 and thus may contain lead paint hazards.

Anyone who disturbs lead paint in a home, or child occupied facility built before 1978, must take an eight hour training course, and be able to show proof of that certification. The regulation is written so that you must assume the paint in a pre-78 building is lead paint unless you can prove it is not.

The course teaches you how to test the paint to determine whether or not it is lead, to notify the property owner and tenants of the existence of the lead paint, to work safely around the toxic paint, and to clean up the lead paint chips and dust when the job is completed.

Contractors who do not follow the rules risk fines up to $37,500 per violation.  Recently two NH contractors have been fined:  Exterior Images of Derry,  and  Kindred Painting, LLC of Dover

For more information about Lead Paint Safety Certification, getting your child tested, or other lead paint or healthy homes concerns, contact:

Ben Kirkwood, ben@kkirkwood.com, 603-716-2901 or visit www.lead-edu.info