New federal regulations keep hazard away from workers, families; fines could reach $37,500 a day
View full sizeTyler Dixon and Jayson Breckheimer put waste from a home in Skaneateles in a heavy plastic bag and sealed it with another bag. New federal regulations for contractors and landlords amp up what has to be done to keep people safe from lead.David Yulke's Skaneateles home looked like something out of a science fiction movie.
Men in masks and white plastic suits put chunks of siding in double plastic bags. Work areas around the Elizabeth Street colonial were cordoned off with plastic sheeting. Signs warned of danger.
The job last month was nothing out of the ordinary: replacing 17 windows and re-siding the house.
Three months ago, none of that extra work would have been required. A federal rule that took effect April 22 requires a long list of precautions and clean-up measures for almost any construction job in a building built before lead paint was banned in 1978.
The point of the EPA's new rule is to cut down on lead exposure during construction. The rule comes with strict guidelines, heavy training requirements and high fines. Local construction contractors estimate costs from training and new equipment will raise the price of an average job about 10 percent.
Public health experts say the rules put the emphasis where it needs to be: on the insidious dangers of lead paint dust.
Most people understand the dangers of lead paint chips, which small children sometimes eat because they taste sweet. But the hazards of lead paint dust have been harder to get across, said Christa Huegerich, a public health educator with the Onondaga County Health Department's lead program.
The invisible poison hangs in the air after being released during construction, then settles in a person's lungs until it is absorbed into the bloodstream. Kids also can ingest the dust when they touch surfaces covered with it and put their hands in their mouths, Huegerich said.
The new rules are a welcome tool for her program, which works to reduce lead poisoning across the county. From 2005 to 2007, the city of Syracuse had the fourth-highest number of children with lead poisoning in the state, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Health.
In children, lead poisoning causes developmental problems, hearing and speech problems and behavioral problems. In adults, it causes confusion and can mimic the flu without the respiratory problems.
Some local contractors think the rules are over the top, and the high fines -- up to $37,500 a day -- could put some smaller companies out of business.
After months of complaining, contractors successfully persuaded the feds to give them more time to get the training. Recently, Congress gave firms until October to get certified, and gave individual workers until September to enroll in a certification class.
The regulation is the first federal requirement for general contractors when it comes to dealing with lead paint. And it affects jobs large and small. Anything that impacts 6 feet of wall, floor or ceiling that could have been painted with lead paint applies. That means jobs that seem small, such as replacing a few windows, need all the bells and whistles.
Brian Ciota, president of McClurg Construction in Marcellus, said his workers will have to follow the new rules on about 40 percent of the jobs the company does. He's spent $15,000 on training and buying new equipment, such as Tyvek suits and special vacuum cleaners.
His company was working on the Skaneateles building. That was the first job McClurg has done under the new rules.
View full sizeTyler Dixon and Jayson Breckheimer dispose of clapboards with lead paint at a home in Skaneateles. Federal rules now require such careful treatment of materials from buildings built before 1978, when lead was still allowed in paint. The regulations require contractors to make costly investments in training and equipment, but are praised by health experts who point out that Syracuse had the fourth-highest number of children with lead poisoning in the state from 2005 to 2007."I think there are parts that are too much," Ciota said. He said he doesn't understand the requirement to wrap all of the construction debris in plastic, and he worries about having to have plastic on the floors because it could be a safety hazard.
Ciota said another struggle with the new rules is getting through to someone who can answer questions at the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the regulation. An EPA spokesman said the agency has had long waits on its lead hot line because of questions about the law.
"There's a lot of confusion," Ciota said. "It's not because it's bad or good. It's because it's new."
Bill Marinich, head of Marinich Construction in Syracuse and president of the Home Builders and Remodelers of Central New York, said the rules are hard on small firms, and that many of the one-man remodeling operations aren't aware that the rules apply to them, too.
"Most of the remodelers in our area are small-time companies," Marinich said. "If they get fined, it's going to kill them."
Marinich said he sees why some of the rules are needed to protect kids, but thinks the provisions to protect adult construction workers might be over the top.
"I don't think any of my guys have high lead content or exposure in their bodies," Marinich said.
But they could. The risk to construction workers is real, said Greg Siwinski, an industrial hygienist with the CNY Occupational Health Clinical Center. He said the danger of lead poisoning for construction workers and contractors is real and mostly overlooked.
The center provides lead testing for construction workers, but it's something only a handful of companies do for their workers on a regular basis.
Right now, Siwinski is treating a construction worker suffering from lead poisoning. The man contracted the poisoning from the dust he breathed in on a single project, Siwinski said.
The worker began having stomach pains and headaches that couldn't be explained. Siwinski said the man's blood lead levels were high enough for him to need a treatment called chelation. That's when drugs are used to flush the lead from the blood out into the patient's urine. He said that's only been done in about three cases that he can recall in his 15 years at the center.
Siwinski said there are likely many more construction workers who are suffering from lead poisoning but have no idea. The new regulations will go a long way to limit their exposure to lead dust, he said.
"It's taken a long time to get modern day regulations up to snuff," Siwinski said.
Patrick Strodel has been teaching contractors about the new regulations through his Syracuse company, CNY Environmental Institute. When the regulations first went into effect, he was teaching an eight-hour class every day. Now it's down to a few days a week.
Strodel said contractors often come in with a "show me the bodies" attitude about protecting workers from lead poisoning. But they often leave with their minds changed.
"I have people come in here filled with misinformation and a general bad attitude about the whole thing," Strodel said. "By the time they're through, they understand the hazard we're dealing with here."
He said he usually asks if anyone has had their blood tested for lead, and most have not. In a recent class, one man said he'd been treated for lead poisoning after he went to his doctor for headaches and stomach cramps. Like Siwinski's patient, he needed to have his blood cleaned of the lead.
Yulke, owner of the Skaneateles house, had his own change of heart about the lead rules. At first, he thought they were an expensive pain, and another example of the government butting in where it didn't belong. But after researching the dangers of lead exposure, and talking to his pregnant daughter, who will be spending time in the house, he changed his mind.
"It's easy to say that these things are overdone," said Yulke, who estimated that the new rules cost him an extra $1,700. But then he read up about lead, and learned any exposure was too much. "The truth is this is something we need to pay attention to."
Contact Marnie Eisenstadt at meisenstadt@syracuse.com or 470-2246.