July 6, 2010

NRCA Comments on Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173

The National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) appreciates the 

opportunity to provide comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 

(EPA’s) advance notice of proposed rulemaking with respect to its intent to regulate 

lead-safe work practices in the renovation, repair and painting of public and 

commercial buildings under section 402(c)(3) of the Toxic Substances Control Act. 

NRCA was formed in 1886 and is the one of the construction industry's oldest 

trade associations and the voice of professional roofing contractors worldwide. It is 

an association of roofing, roof deck, and waterproofing contractors; industry-related 

associate members, including manufacturers, distributors, architects, consultants, 

engineers and city, state, and government agencies; and international membership 

worldwide. NRCA has over 3,500 members from all 50 states and 54 countries, and 

is affiliated with 96 state, regional and local roofing contractor associations.

NRCA members range in size from small commercial roofing and residential 

roofing contractors with less than $1 million in sales volume (40 percent of the 

current membership) to larger, commercial contractors. More than half of NRCA 

members perform both residential and commercial roofing work. NRCA members 

conduct approximately 60 percent of the work in the U.S. roofing market.
NRCA is concerned that regulatory efforts to control the hazards posed by 

lead-based paint in public and commercial buildings, particularly with respect to 

exterior renovations, may be overly broad in scope and mandate burdensome and 

costly work practices that have minimal effect or no effect on limiting personal 

exposures to lead. NRCA agrees with EPA’s comment with respect to public and 

commercial buildings, target housing and child-occupied facilities that “each type of 

building may present a different level of exposure to occupants.” In that regard, 

NRCA believes that the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking does not fully

acknowledge that many factors must be analyzed and proposed regulatory controls 

scrutinized to establish an effective management approach to lead-based paint 

hazards. Some of those factors include the nature of the exterior tasks performed 

on public and commercial buildings; the urban, suburban or rural nature of the 

location of a structure; the building’s workforce population and the presence of the 

workforce during lead-based paint activities; the number of windows, doors, roof 

hatches and other entry and exit points of access to exterior activities; the 

proximity of adjacent structures and likelihood of track-in lead contamination to 

those structures; the specific public or commercial building workforce’s unique work 

rules and practices with respect to everyday work clothing and work shoe wear;

and the physical distance separating the building workforce from the lead-based 

paint activities.

Commercial buildings generally are designed, built and used for purposes 

other than public occupancy or interaction. NRCA understands that this fact does 

not diminish the need to protect the building’s occupants from lead-based paint 

hazards but it may suggest procedures different from those applicable to target 
housing and child-occupied facilities for protecting those occupants and members of 

the public who may be in proximity to the building. NRCA believes that regulations 

to control lead-based paint exposures with respect to public and commercial 

properties should align with the risks posed to the occupants and the general public 

so that resources are focused on those areas of exposure that pose the severest 

and most likely threat to the most susceptible persons. Currently available 

research, some of which EPA references in support of this notice of rulemaking, 

appears to involve projects conducted on residential and child care facilities, for 

example, exposure and track-in dust studies related to renovations of homes. NRCA 

believes that the results of those studies may not be appropriately transferable to 

serve as the foundation for regulation of lead-based paint hazards in all public and 

commercial structures. It seems clear, and EPA appears to concur, that much more 

investigation and analysis of renovation and repair activities on public and 

commercial structures is needed to satisfy a due diligence requirement for imposing 

regulations with a broad scope of coverage. EPA’s statement that “...the agency 

expects that partial demolition and similar renovation activities would be expected 

to release similar types of lead-based paint dust particles with the ability to travel 

long distances and contaminate soil and other horizontal surfaces...” appears to 

reflect an agency disposition toward overly broad regulation that may lump all 

renovation activities in with building demolition. Although this statement was made 

in the context of an introductory request for further research and data collection, 

NRCA cautions that resulting EPA regulation in this area should not be a one-sizefits-all mandate that treats gutter replacements on commercial buildings in the 

same manner as a complete demolition of a structure. NRCA believes that proposed 
regulation of lead-based paint hazards that does not take into account, in a most 

comprehensive manner, the nature of the renovation tasks undertaken in public 

and commercial structures will result in ineffective government compliance efforts, 

waste of private resources and a negligible impact on the health of those that the 

regulation initially sought to protect.

Specific exterior tasks involving lead-based paint warrant focused research 

and analysis and NRCA believes that certain exterior tasks related to roofing system 

repair or replacement may involve incidental disturbance of lead-based paint that

can be managed safely with little or no chance of harmful effects on building 

occupants or the general population. Some tasks may justify an exclusion from 

regulatory controls. Many incidental tasks involve building elements that are not the 

primary components to which the majority of work activities are focused but must 

be removed, relocated or displaced in order to accomplish the primary project 

tasks. For example, reroofing a commercial structure often may involve removal of 

rooftop accessories or components that may contain lead-based paint. Painted 

flashings, wood trim or siding and fan or ventilator shrouds are just a few examples 

of such components. Although such components separately may not be of large 

size, on even a small project the aggregation of the components may easily exceed 

the 20-square-foot exclusion for exterior work currently contained in the residential 

and child-occupied facilities regulations. However, removal of such elements located

inside the roof perimeter would appear to involve no threat of contamination of 

exterior ground areas, walkways or entrances typical to many track-in dust 

hazards. In such an instance, exterior containments, barriers and warning signs

may be superfluous to worker or public protection. All that may be required is 
managing the hazard at the point of removal or disturbance so that any lead-based 

paint particles or dust are contained and discarded properly—this can be 

accomplished with well-grounded, established work practices. It may be appropriate 

in those circumstances to establish an unlimited square foot exclusion from the 

public/commercial regulations for disturbance of such incidental components (with 

presumed lead-based paint) when proper work practices are followed. Proper work 

practices likely would involve the use of PPE—gloves, eye protection, long-sleeve 

shirt—and proper debris containment through the use of plastic sheeting, HEPA 

vacuuming or sweeping and disposal using plastic garbage bags. NRCA believes 

that sampling, monitoring and cataloging appropriate roofing projects for leadbased paint hazards in this regard may be helpful in determining the impact of 

roofing tasks on lead-based paint hazards and suggesting tailored regulations or 

exclusions.

NRCA is willing to partner with EPA and other interested stakeholders to 

assist in research and analysis that can form the basis for suitable regulation of 

tasks that roofing contractors may be engaged in related to lead-based paint 

hazards. 

Bill Good

Executive Vice President

National Roofing Contractors Association

10255 West Higgins Road

Suite 600

Rosemont, IL 60018-5607