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February 2011

QuanTEM Chronicle

An informative Newsletter for Environmental Professionals

 

Message from John Barnett, President 

John Barnett, President
John Barnett, President.

Lets talk about the RRP Regulations...

 

I've had the opportunity to be involved in the environmental industry for over 30 years and the RRP is the craziest, most poorly thought out regulation I have ever seen. 

 

 The WHITE CARD clearance is about as stupid as it gets.  No documentation, no paper trail and no liability coverage for the contractor.  Everything I have read concerning this regulation talks to the concern of children in residence or building and having owned an old house with lots of lead based paint I can relate. 

 

My concern is about the workers who are working in these buildings every day.  They're faced with working in an airborne lead environment on a daily basis with no PPE and no training.  What happens when some attorney gets one of these workers to sue his employer and his employer has no way of protecting himself because he has no exposure data? 

 

I know the effects are much more drastic in children; just think about it.  If the legal industry can develop a precedent for worker exposure they can have a hay day and the costs to individual contractors will greatly outweigh the cost of training, testing and documentation. 

 

Just something to think about. *
 

 

Sincerely,

President, QuanTEM Laboratories, LLC

 WIll RRP Regulations Be Eased for Residental Contractors?

Posted by Mark Paskell on Wed. Jan. 19, 2011

Retreived February 28, 2011.

 

Yesterday the Obama administration announced that they are going to look at easing cumbersome regulations to make it easier for small businesses.

 

Will the administration do anything about the EPA RRP Lead Law?

 

The EPA has admitted that they have no ability or resources to enforce this law.

 

In Florida, the EPA met with state officials early this week and said they would like the State of Florida to take over the administration and enforcement of the law. The EPA said they only have a handful of employees to enforce the southeastern region of the United States.

 

The EPA needs and wants states to take over the EPA RRP Law. In EPA Authorized states where this has occurred there is more enforcement activity taking place.

 

This lack of regulatory capacity should qualify for action to ease the regulation. Many contractors would like to see it repealed completely. At a minimum, it would be great to see it pulled back, re-worked with input from our industry and then redeployed. The intent of RRP makes sense however the cumbersome rule is wreaking havoc on the residential construction industry.

 

The illegal contracting community is exploding stealing jobs from the market. The good guys are reporting they spent thousands to be compliant yet they see thousands of jobs being done with no RRP practices. Consumers have little knowledge of the program and balk at paying the added costs.

 

READ MORE.

In This Issue
WIll RRP Regulations Be Eased for Residental Contractors?
Top 10 Worst States for Mold
Crystalline Silica...Rule Pending At OIRA
In a Town Called ASBESTOS, a Plan to Restart the Industry That Made it Prosperous
Lead Poisoning Symptoms in Infants
Barbara's Corner: Additional Testing & Shipping Information

Editors Note

Business Development Director,
QuanTEM Laboratories
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*If you have questions or concerns about the EPA's RRP Rule or if your state is among the growing list of states that has chosen to govern and implement its own private RRP program, please visit the Official EPA RRP website at http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm for more information. 

 

 

QuanTEM Laboratories stands ready to assist you with the analysis of lead in paint, soil, air and dust. 

 

Our goal for the past 21 years has been to offer our customers the best service, quality, professionalism and accuracy in the industry as an environmental analytical laboratory specalizing in asbestos, lead and mold

Let us prove it to you!

 

QuanTEM Laboratories, LLC 

NVLAP, ELLAP & EMLAP Accredited

NVLAP Lab Code 101359 

AIHA (Lab Code 101352)

 

Please call today at (800) 822-1650. 

 
  
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This course is also a PREP COURSE for an ACAC Council-Certified Microbial Investigator (CMI).

  
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(800) 822-1650 or email me HERE.
 
  


 

 

 

  
Top 10 Worst States for Mold

Retreived February 28, 2011 from

http://www.servicemagic.com/article.show.Top-10-Worst-States-for-Mold.14164.html

  

It might surprise many Americans to know that the highest occurrence of mold in residential and commercial properties is not just the typically wet states of Florida, Oregon, or the Carolinas.

 

Those states are still among the frontrunners for mold damage and contamination, but other "drier" states climbed into the  

Top Ten, dispelling the conventional wisdom that climate is the best determinant of mold growth.

Here are the Top Ten States (also the Bottom 5 States), according to the relative hazard ranking model developed by American Risk Management Resources (ARMR) and now being used by GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI):

 

Top Ten

Relative Hazard Mold Ranking

Texas

2.95

Florida

2.5

Oklahoma

2.45

South Carolina

1.91

Nevada

1.9

Arizona

1.9

California

1.73

South Dakota

1.47

Tennessee

1.33

Kansas

1.25

 

READ MORE.      

Crystalline Silica Rule Pending At OIRA

The Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica proposed rule was received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Feb. 14. If the NPRM is published in April as planned, the agency will be trying to lower its PELS for general industry, construction, and maritime.

Retreived February 28, 2011 from http://ohsonline.com/

By:  Occupational Health & Saftey Onlne

Posted February 28, 2011

 

April 2011 will be a significant month on OSHA's rulemaking calendar if two economically significant proposed rules stay on track. The Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica proposed rule, which was received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Feb. 14, is listed there with April as the date for issuing the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. And April also is the date

Crystalline Silica
Crystalline Silica Cluster.

given for OSHA to initiate a Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) review of a proposed combustible dust standard for general industry.

The two rules have been on the agency's agenda for some time. OSHA's PEL (8-hour TWA) for crystalline silica as respirable quartz is 10 mg/m3 divided by the value "%SiO2 + 2." The OSHA PEL (8-hour TWA) for crystalline silica as total quartz is 30 mg/m3 divided by the value "%SiO2 + 2." The NIOSH recommended exposure limit is far lower -- TWA 0.05 mg/m3 -- yet twice as high as the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH)'s recommended level of TWA 0.025 mg/m3.

NIOSH and OSHA have estimated in recent years that from 1.7 million to 2 million U.S. workers are exposed to crystalline silica. Exposures at high levels can cause silicosis, a potentially fatal disease.  READ MORE. 

In a Town Called ASBESTOS, a Plan to Restart the Industry That Made it Prosperous

G. Bernard Coulombe, president of Mine Jeffrey. He says the type of asbestos mined there, known as chrysotile, is not harmful.

  By IAN AUSTEN Published: February 3, 2011; Retreived February 27, 2011 from The New York Times online.

 

ASBESTOS, Quebec - The belief in asbestos lives on in this mining town of 7,000 people, not just in the name - retained despite its association with cancer - but in the ambitions of the mineral's long-time champion here, G. Bernard Coulombe.

Mr. Coulombe, 69, says he believes that you can recapture the past. At a time when Canada, like many countries, is spending millions of dollars to remove asbestos from buildings, to say nothing of covering asbestos-related disability claims, Mr. Coulombe wants a $58 million loan guarantee from the province of Quebec. He is hoping to attract investors and revitalize the mine that gave rise to the town in 1879 and for more than a century has swallowed chunks of it into its ever-expanding pit. Asbestos, Quebec Canada

Adding to the controversy over the plan, Mr. Coulombe's strategy is to sell to countries like India, Pakistan and Vietnam, where enthusiasm for cheap asbestos often comes with a lax approach to workplace health and safety.

It would seem a quixotic venture. Mr. Coulombe's proposal has been widely condemned by the medical and public health community both in Canada and abroad. The mineral's dangers have largely eliminated the market for it in Canada as well as the United States, where the last asbestos mine closed in 2002.   READ MORE

Lead Poisoning Symptoms in Infants

Retreived February 15, 2011 from http://www.surebaby.com 

 

Lead poisoning is usually a time-concentrated process, so symptoms do not show until the body has reached its most concentrated and chronic state. At this point, symptoms may include: nausea, stomach pain, stomach cramps, constipation, diarrhea, excessive vomiting, chronic fatigue, headaches, muscle weakness and progressed tooth decay.

Prolonged exposure to levels of lead can affect your child's development, causing coordination and learning problems. Behavioral problems can also be a sign of lead poisoning.

 

If you see any of these signs and are concerned that your child is suffering from lead poisoning, it is always best to take your child to see your primary physician. Your child's doctor can run a variety of tests to check for high levels of lead, including blood and urine tests and X-rays of the stomach and bones to check for lead deposits. Depending on the extent of the exposure, treatment may or may not be a simple process.


Treatment will usually entail removal of the source of exposure and special drugs called chelation agents that will be given to the patient to rid the body of deposits. After the body has been fully cleansed, a proper balanced diet will be prescribed to get the body's immune system back on track. In some cases, damage to the body may be permanent and not reversible

READ MORE

Barbara's CORNER
Barbara Holder, Customer Service Manager
Barbara Holder, Customer Relations Manager

Additional Testing

 View my videos on YouTube

I have taken many phone orders for samples needing a point count or other analysis in the past.

 

In an effort to make this procedure mistake proof, I would like to change the way we currently do this.

 

  • An email or a faxto us here with all the pertinent information
  • Quantem ID # of report
  • Sample # to be point counted
  • Turn-Around Time Required
  • Analysis required (IE: 400 pt ct., 1000 pt. ct., Gravimetric pt ct, etc.) 

These simple steps will help to cut down any confusion or misinterpretation that can occur with a quick verbal order.

 

Also in reference to my last Barbara's Corner....

When filling out your FedEx shipping slip you must avoid using the < sign for weight.

FedEx intreprets <1  as 11 pounds (instead of ONE pound). They have been known to charge an enormous rate.   Please be careful. 

 

Barbara Holder has been with QuanTEM since October 2004 as our Customer Relations Manager. Barbara plays an active supervisory role with all customer interactions with QuanTEM.

QuanTEM Chronicle Newsletter
Produced & Edited by
Scott Leavell, Business Development Director 
Suggestions or comments?  Email me here.
Disclaimer

Any publication included in this News Letter and/or opinions expressed therein do not necessarily reflect the views of QuanTEM Laboratories, LLC but remain solely those of the author(s). Such publications have been included only for ease of reference and academic purposes.
 
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