House Addresses Lead-Paint Test Kits
Political Insider
In related news, on July 12, the House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment to HR 2584 that would prohibit the EPA from enforcing the RRP until the agency has certified the accuracy of commercially available test kits that can be used to reliably ascertain the presence of lead on various coated surfaces at job sites.
The EPA’s original estimates to comply with the RRP relied heavily on the availability of low-cost and accurate field tests that workers could use to determine whether a specific repair or renovation job would trigger the rule.
The EPA’s research, however, finds that currently available test kits significantly err on the side of false positives; that is, they wrongly detect lead levels below the legal threshold and result in more jobs being unnecessarily subjected to the costs of the RRP rule.
Despite promises to the contrary, the agency has not been able to certify any widely available accurate test kits. This failure prompted lawmakers to act. The next step is for the full House to consider the appropriations bill, and then it must be voted on by the Senate.
Was this article helpful to you?
|