Libby bill would strenthens rules for contractors working with possibly toxic buildings

AUGUSTA — A bill by Sen. Nate Libby, D-Lewiston, would strengthen health safety protocols for contractors working on buildings that have a high likelihood of containing toxic lead.

The bill, L.D. 441, was introduced to the Labor, Commerce Research and Economic Development Committee on March 8 according to a news release from the Maine Senate Democratic Office. It would require contractors engaged in painting, renovation, remodeling, maintenance or repair of buildings constructed before 1978 to have someone on-site who is certified under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule.

“It is shameful that even though the EPA began banning lead paint from widespread commercial use nearly 40 years ago, Maine children continue to be poisoned by lead,” said Libby at the committee hearing. “It is about time we bring state resources to bear in enforcing safe lead abatement and lead handling.”

Buildings constructed before 1978 are likely to contain lead-based paint, which could become disturbed in the course of the contractor’s work, the release said. Disturbances can create hazardous lead dust when surfaces with lead paint, even from many decades ago, are disturbed. Those certified under the rule are trained in the use of lead-safe work practices, and requires renovation, repair, and painting firms to be EPA-certified.

The bill would also require people performing maintenance on multi-unit buildings at which the owner receives public money in the form of a housing subsidy of voucher, to have this certification.

Lead poisoning causes permanent and irreversible cognitive impairment. Children and their developing brains are especially at risk of damage from exposure to lead. According to the EPA, more than 20 percent of the Maine children diagnosed with lead poisoning between 2009 to 2014 were from the Lewiston-Auburn area.

Blake Whitaker, an associate professor of natural and applied sciences at the Universty of Southern Maine, and chairman of the Lewiston Area Public Health Committee also spoke in favor of the bill.

“This act will provide critical support for the fullest, most expedient implementation of Maine’s Lead Poisoning Control Act by requiring all professionals involved in lead abatement to be certified in federally recognized best practices in residential lead remediation,” said Whitaker.
The bill faces further action in the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, and votes in the House and Senate.