Surface Coating and Other Shipyard-Related Environmental Issues
- July 2010 -

Lead Paint Standards
EPA has reopened the comment period on a proposed rule to add requirements to ensure that lead-renovated areas are suitable for reoccupation, as well as an advance notice of proposed rulemaking covering requirements for renovations on exteriors of commercial and public buildings. On July 8 a coalition of home builder groups filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit challenging the July 2009 rule in which EPA removed a previously existing provision in the lead-based paint renovation rule that allowed contractors to opt-out of the rule in situations where no pregnant women or children under 6 years of age reside.

Southern California Solvent Regulation
On July 9, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) reinstated regulations governing paint thinners and solvents that a state court had rescinded in December because the agency had failed to adequately address fire hazards associated with acetone-based products. The SCAQMD subsequently commissioned an environmental assessment addressing the fire hazard issue. The rule sets a volatile organic compound (VOC) limit of 25 grams per liter effective January 1, 2011.

Lead Paint Litigation
Sherwin-Williams has appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court a June 2009 jury award of $7 million for a child's brain damages blamed on ingested leaded paint chips.