Lead paint in the laundry room
One of the differences between print media and on-line media is that topics I raise live on -- through the joy of search engines -- long beyond when we here at Boston.com have forgotten about them. Here’s a questions that came to me long, long after the June, 2008 entry. JZ asked about the specifics of the lead paint law when it comes to condos associations:
1+ year later, if anyone can confirm the specific laws one more time, I'd appreciate it. I have searched on the Internet and haven't found anything more specific.This is specific to Massachusetts. Does the law state that the condo association/condo trust is responsible and will pay for all common area deleading that is required, including both interior common areas and exterior of the building, if currently only one unit has a child under 6 years of age? The interior of the condo unit with the child would of course be the responsibility of that condo unit's owner. The question is for the rest of the building which is all occupied by owners of the condo units (Condo Trustees).
This one is easy. Very easy! If you want to know anything about lead paint, contact Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. You can write them or call them, 800-532-9571.
So what’s the answer? Arianwen Hedgecock, MPH, sent me an email saying this:
The definition for owner you will see shows that the common area is owned by the condo association. The Massachusetts lead law, the owner is responsible for bringing a property into compliance with the MA lead law. There are more details about the responsibilities for property owners on the attached fact sheet. (Here are the relevant parts:
On Page 105 CMR 1923 there is the definition of Common area.
On Page 105 CMR 1924 there is the definition of Dwelling Unit.
On Page 105 CMR 1926 there is the definition of Owner.)
The condo association is responsible to delead common areas. And it is in their interest to do so, since they are collectively responsible for any harm caused by the lead paint in the common area.
That is the law, but, what is the practice? Do condo buyers and owners consider the cost of deleading and plan to do the work when a child moves in? Do you think your condo association would take on the expense of deleading if you asked them to? Has your association deleaded? Should your association delead?
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Rona, it's great that you can sift through all the legalese that the CLPPP sent you, but I'd hardly call parsing their response, "very easy." I know I had to read the whole email twice to make sense of it, and I'm still not entirely sure what the answer is, since the email never mentioned what complying with the lead law meant. (Is exposing a single resident child to lead paint non-compliance? What if there are no resident children, but children visit sometimes? If children never enter the building, is it still illegal to have lead paint?)
I'm disappointed in the CLPPP. They could have said, "Yes, the condo association is responsible for de-leading common areas of the entire [floor/building/complex] if even a single child lives in a single unit." Instead, they spouted a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo. They'll never give anyone bad legal advice if all they ever do is quote the law and cite definitions, but they'll probably never give anyone useful legal advice, either. Clearly, they're more interested in covering their own behinds than in actually providing useful, straightforward information that people can use to prevent children from being exposed to lead paint.
How could anyone ever determine weather "harm" was caused by lead paint in a common area vs some other place?
This whole issue is ridiculous. How much unsupervised time is a child under 6 going to spend in common areas gnawing at woodwork?
James, CLPPP gave the legal mumbo jumbo because the reader asked for that. They also said basically what I wrote "The condo association is responsible to delead common areas. And it is in their interest to do so, since they are collectively responsible for any harm caused by the lead paint in the common area."
Grasshopper, If a child has elevated lead levels, an investigator comes to figure out what lead the child has been exposed to. The most obvious culprits are blamed first: toys, jewelry, lunch boxes, condos, common areas, playground soil. If there are not lead-covered toys or jewelry and the condo is deleaded, the common areas could come to the top of the suspect list.
fordpem, Gnawing on the woodwork is not the problem. Old windows blow lead dust into the common areas is the problem. Lead dust ends up in the air and on the floor with the rug-rats (who are the perfect age to be harmed.) Should children be stopped from breathing in the common areas?
This is a pervasive problem in the Boston area because so much of the housing stock has lead paint. Unfortunately, gutting and renovating can cause more harm than good, if not done correctly, because it makes the lead dust airborne. Lead is one of the few substances that we have years and years of evidence and research showing how bad it is for people, especially children and females. I find it very telling about our society that we allow lead to continue to be a problem.
What about implementing a policy whereby no persons under the age of 18 can enter the laundry room?
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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