Just 2 Minutes - Interviews by Kamil Sarji

32-Lead Testing Secrets: Passing the Rhode Island Compliance Test

• Kamil Sarji • Episode 32

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Discover the essentials of lead paint testing and compliance in rental properties. Sharon Barr from LeadSafe Inspections shares invaluable insights into detecting lead paint and securing compliance certificates in Rhode Island. Learn why lead poisoning is still a concern, how to test efficiently, and what steps landlords need to take to ensure safe and legal rental properties. If you're a landlord, renter, or property manager, this episode is your go-to guide for navigating Rhode Island’s lead safety regulations and protecting tenants.






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A lot of people think this led law is a bunch of baloney. But I've seen so many people that have been have had children who have been led, poisoned, and we still have over a thousand children a year just in Rhode Island being lead poisoned. It's led all over. So, yeah, yeah, we do find it mostly in your wood work. So the door frames window casings, all your wood. A lot of times walls and ceilings do not have lead. And that's because lead paint was a much more expensive paint. So they used it in the high traffic areas. What are the things that you are inspecting in a home, like a nice clean up standard home besides the door around the door and the windows? Yeah. What are things that you are looking for or that you test? Yeah. So if you're buying a house and you want to know where the LED is, I take this x ray machine with me and I'm going to test your walls, your ceiling, your crown molding your window, trim the floor, the baseboard. So and you're going to get all that information on a report and welcome, everybody. I am Camille Saatchi, the host of just 2 Minutes. And today I have Sharon here. Sharon, you want to tell us about yourself? Sure. I'm a lead paint inspector. My company name is LED Safe inspections. And we do inspections for people who are purchasing property or landlords. Anybody who wants to know if they have lead paint in their home. Awesome. Welcome to just 2 minutes. Thank you. Great having you here. If you're in Rhode Island, you should know Sharon. She's the lead expert. I've been doing it a long time. That's why. That's why. Maybe. But I appreciate that. Absolutely. Thank you for coming down to get interviewed for my show. So just 2 minutes is just a bunch of random questions that I'm going to ask you. Okay. Nothing to do with lead. Oh, the why you have me here. All right. Okay. I'll try my best. All right. Here we go. If. If Superman can see through anything with his X-ray vision and his X-ray, why can't he see through LED? I don't know. Because it's a thicker material or. I don't know. Yes, I mean, the guy could do anything except look through LED. I think that's why they want to get rid of blood. So, maple sirup? Yeah. Yeah. How about maple sirup and coffee? No, no. French toast? Yes, definitely. Chocolate, strawberry pancake. Oh, yeah. That often? I'd throw a little whipped cream on that. How about broccoli salad? Oh, God, no. French fries? Yeah. Yeah. Let's have a French fries. Oh, yeah. I'm an Englishman. I definitely like that. So why do people commit crimes? Uh, I don't know. Is it maybe because of the adrenaline maybe that it takes, that it gives them? Or is it because they're desperate? They need food or they need money? I don't know. So these people commit crimes. They're in jail to punish them. If we said for one month, you cannot either have milk or orange juice or can't have Netflix for a month, What's what's the punishment? That way you can live without milk and orange juice. You can't live without Netflix. Conflicts is a definite. All right. So be torture. If you took Netflix away. Yeah, I totally agree. So a frog in a turtle, they're arguing. They want to see who can change their color to red. All right, well, I guess we have to cut it off to now, is it? We had lived a little too much that time, so. Sharon. Yeah. I'm very excited to have you here. A lot going on with lead in the state of Rhode Island. So let's talk about Rhode Island and the laws here, especially to landlords or anybody renting a property. What's what's the law or rules now or that's going on? Well, the lead law has been around since 2005. So everybody thinks that these laws are new now. The only thing that's new is some changes to enforcement and ways that they are going to enforce it. But the lead law has been around since 2005. All landlords were supposed to have lead certificates done on their property. And the problem is nobody was doing it. And because nobody was making them, if nobody was saying, why would a landlord spend a couple hundred dollars on a LED inspection if nobody's asking him for it? And a lot of people or it's not that they want their properties to be unsafe for the tenants, they just don't know. So a lot of landlords don't realize how severe the lead poisoning can be and how dangerous it is. So I get a lot of people complaining that this is just, I don't know, the state making them do something again. And but it's really about protecting families and especially families with young children. But bottom line is, all landlords are supposed to already have lead certificates done on their property, but now you're being forced to do it now. And so you have to get your certificates on your property. And they have to do this every two years. Yeah, the certificates do expire after two years. Now, you can potentially renew your own certificate as a landlord depending on whether or not the tenant stays there. If you have a tenant that stays for ten years, every two years, you can renew your own certificate. There is a process now. There is a process for that. You do have to take a three hour seminar, learn what to look for, then go into the unit, see if there's anything that needs to be touched up. But for instance, chipping paint, then you want to do that yourself, and then you can fill out an affidavit saying that you have done a walk through on the property and you send in the class certificate, the affidavit that you signed, and my original certificate into the Department of Health. And you can renew your on certificate for another two years. Now, yours will expire, though, the day the tenant moves out. So let's say I do it now. My certificates good for two years, even if the tenant does move in that time frame. But then you do it yourself in two years and let's say they live. They stay there another two years. You do it again. But then six months later, they move out your stops and then you have to call us back in again. And that's because there's been a change in tenancy. So you have to do inspections with an independent inspection like with me whenever there's a change in tenancy. So they enforce the landlord going in and well, the landlord has to send in the documentation and then the Department of Health will send them something back saying that they're okay for another two years. I have to tell the Department of Health what your tenant's name is so that in two years you have to say, okay, it's the same tenant. If you say it's the same tenant and it isn't. If you ever have a problem, then then obviously you've committed fraud by filling an affidavit out saying that you did it and that the tenant is still there. So did what, like clean WhatsApp? Did what? Like clean? Know that they went out there and took it and did a visual inspection. I'm saying then and that the tenant is still the same tenant. I mean, that's what. What do you think of that? Well, I mean, it is a part of the law. So, you know, when damage does happen, when people move out, so when they damage the hallways of the doors or whatever. Now, do I think it's a great idea? No, because tenants do damage on property just by living there. So but they want somebody to go through every two years. And so now the landlord is supposed to touch up anything that might have been damaged over that two year time frame. So if the damage the if the landlord is a diligent landlord, they're going to do the right thing and they're going to fix whatever needs to be fixed. If you're a landlord that is just going to escape the rules. It doesn't matter what they put in there for safeguards. You're going to skate the rules no matter how and what they tell you to do. Okay. Wow. All right. So because all the landlords need to get the cert done. You guys are super busy. Yeah, we are. And I saw this coming, so I have gotten several more inspectors to take the class to do the apprenticeship with me. And I have as many as nine inspectors right now. But over the last two years, I've picked up another five. I only had four previously. I didn't need any more. There was not a call for it because landlords were only doing it when they were Section eight tenants, or maybe if they had some children under six living there. Those were the reasons or the times that we would do inspections. But now that everybody is being forced to do it, yes, I am overwhelmed with calls and emails and all of that. My office staff is tired, but we're doing our best at selling as many spots as we can with appointments. We definitely have more inspections than we can handle right now, but everybody in the state does. A lot of people in this industry, or one or two people we actually have become more than that by having nine people. But at the same time, even that we can't keep up with. So the state is offering some grace period and B and having to comply right now. They should the landlords should still get ready and start to get their inspections if they can, or at least get on a schedule to do that. But they should at least get their properties ready so that when their appointment does happen that they actually get past the inspection. Okay. And eventually will get them all done. Obviously, not just me, but we inspectors will get it all done. And then, you know, in two years when they do expire, that won't be 150,000 units that have to be done all at once. It'll only be the ones that were done two years ago in that month. So so you're saying two years from now, you're going to be super busy still? Yes. Yes. Redo everything. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And a lot of people want to jump into this business. Now, that happened back in 2005 when this law was going into play, too. We had over 300 inspectors at the time. Well, then they realized we didn't need 300 inspectors. So everybody just gave up their licenses. They didn't bother renewing them. Oh, my. Yeah. Now they're like, I should have kept it. Yeah, Yeah. But I mean, the training and everything you have to do, if you don't do enough work, it's just not worth your while to get out after. So you have to renew. I have to have training every two years. Yeah, I have to do that. Do you prove. Do you have to prove that you're in the business or you've done inspections? No, no. Just take those types of classes and then you have to apply back to the Department of Health again. So you have to renew your license every two years with the Department of Health, and you have to show that you've taken training. Okay. So to get your to become a lead inspector, what's the process? Well, you have to take a 40 hour class to start with. The classes only offered periodically. And right now they've told us about actually offering the classes now because the problem is getting the apprenticeship. So people take the 40 hour class first and then they have to work under somebody for a while to do inspections and they have to do so many comprehensive inspections, so many clearances and so many led mitigation inspections. And they're not I have a lot of comprehensive inspections, but not everybody does. And you have to have an inspector or do the training under an inspector who has the x ray machine that we use. So that's the only way you can really do your comprehensive is by using the x ray machine. And so how many hours total they have to do? Well, it's not hours so much. It's the numbers of inspections. So they have to do 15 comprehensives. Now those comprehensives are 2 to 3 hours apiece. So they have to do each one of them that's in the field. Then they still have to finish the paperwork afterwards and then we have to take samples, we have to take water and maybe dust samples. And then after that all comes in, you still have to then put that into a report. So it's probably about 4 hours in total for each comprehensive that they do. And there's 15. Yes. And there's 15 of someone like in a month can get it done. Only if you can find 15 comprehensives in a month. There's not that many. Oh, okay. So yeah, comprehensives are the biggest ones that we have to do, but we don't do as many of comprehensives as we do of the LED mitigation ones. They only have to do five led mitigation ones which are the landlord inspections, but those are only half our each unit and then maybe another half hour of doing the paperwork that goes with it. But the comprehensives are the ones that are hard to find. We only do them in certain instances and so you have to come up with 15 of them. And so it takes probably about four or five months once you take the class to get your apprenticeship up and running and finish everything okay. Yeah. And then the people that these inspectors are training eventually become their competition Potentially, yes. Now, my insurance company has told me that I can't train somebody who isn't going to work for me because now I'm responsible for that person. So if you're going to work for me, then I can train you. But I can't train somebody who is going to be my competition only because once you go out and you're in, you doing your own thing. Now I'm responsible because I'm the one that trained you. Of course, Obviously, I don't know how insurance all works and all that liability works and stuff. At some point you've got to be on your own, but you are not in the business of doing training. So my insurance doesn't cover me for that. Okay, So what are the things that you are inspecting in a home, like a nice lane of standard home, besides the door around the door and the windows? Yeah. What are the things that you are looking for or that you test? Yeah. So if you're buying a house and you want to know where the LED is, I take this x ray machine with me and I'm going to test your walls, your ceiling, your crown molding your window, trim the floor, the baseboard. So and you're going to get all that information on a report. So the report is going to well, the machine gives me a number. The number tells me whether or not it's led. And then I also assess whether or not that is safe. So you can have lead paint and it can be safe, but I'm going to assess that, too. So I'm going to assess whether or not it's damaged. If it's led and it's damaged, that's a hazard. If it's led and it's maybe intact. And that's some type of a friction, then it's still safe. So this room right here could have 50 different readings on it. And then I might go to the kitchen and there might be 75 in a kitchen because I'm going to test all of the inside of the cabinets and the drawers and the shelves and inside closets. I'm going to test your shelf and your shelf support near the pole that's in there and the baseboard that's in there. Oh, my gosh. So it's led all over. So yeah, yeah, we do find it mostly in your woodwork. So the door frames, window casings, all your wood. A lot of times walls and ceilings do not have led. And that's because lead paint was a much more expensive paint. So they used it in the high traffic areas. So that's your door frames and your window casings because that's what you're constantly bumping into. Okay. I want to talk about the gun real quick. Yeah. So this gun is a look like a cool gun or a futuristic gun. It looks like a radar gun like the policeman would use on the road. Okay. So and I hold it just like that. I hold it like they do. I put it on the surface. I pull the trigger and it's going to read right through the the layers of paint and tell me if there's any light in that paint. So do they sell like Home Depot or. Yeah, no, I know there are manufacturers that are going to sell it to you, but it's going to cost you 20 grand. And then the material that goes into it is an x ray material, and it only lasts about a year and a half to two years maximum. And then you have to send it back to the manufacturer to put that material back in. And that's also going to cost you over four grand to be able to get that material put back in it again. Okay. So if you put this on a wall and I cover it up, the lead paints by putting a drywall over it can penetrate through. It will read back about a quarter of an inch. Now, there have been times where if you put like let's say you have tongue and groove wood in your hallway and then you put a sheetrock over it, I might not read the tongue and groove behind it. So that's going to it's going to read through about a quarter of an inch. It might not read all the way back. For instance, vinyl siding on the outside. You have this siding, let's say shingle, then you put weatherization board and then your vinyl. I can't read through all of that, but I can read through the metal that's outside, around the windowsill and the window trim. But if you have ten layers of paint, I'm going to be able to read through all those ten layers. So it's not going to read through a wall or a wall on top of a wall, but that's okay because it's in capsule aided by another wall. The only problem would be if someone puts a hole in that wall now, something from behind it can come through. So if you're scanning, there is lead paint on the surface and behind it you'll be able to see that. And behind that, yes. Okay. Yep. Because if it was Superman, you want to be able to see through that. I can't see. But this gun is going to do better than Superman. That's technology nowadays. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, It's actually pretty cool. Yeah, this machine is pretty cool. Yeah, I remember when you did it at the. At the coworking. Yeah. And you pulled it out. You're telling everybody you had a lead class and I'm sitting there like, Oh, please, please. I hope this will not be embarrassing in front of all these people. No, your building was too new. You are safe. Oh, I don't know what's go here, though. I'm looking at this building. We might not be safe here. Oh, my gosh. Well, your building is safe. I got to say, this is still safe. So even though this could be led right here, it's intact and it's not some type of the friction. So that can be 100% lead and still be safe. Okay. So I want to talk about the enough talking about the gun that makes you nervous. What about the so when you're taking the surface test, what's that thing look like? Is it like a Q-Tip kind of thing? No, we don't do that. We take dust. Wipes is the only samples that we're going to take for landlords. All right. So the landlord inspections now somebody's purchasing a property. We're not going to take any samples whatsoever unless they choose to maybe ask us for what a sample of something. But when it comes to landlord's inspections, we're just going to do a visual inspection only. And that's just assumption is everything is led as long as it's intact and not some type of a friction surface. It doesn't matter if it's led. So we're technically not testing the paint. Now, you may say, Well, that's dumb. Why not test it? Well, it's expensive. So to use that machine, the time it takes and the protocols we have to follow, it's an expensive inspection. So the state came up with this visual inspection only as long as, again, this surface right here is safe because it isn't chipping in. It's not a friction. So when we do an landlord's inspection, it might only take us half an hour versus two or 3 hours for the other type of inspection. And so that inspections are going to be visual only if you have chipping paint. We're going to tell you to paint it. If you have something that's rubbing in, that would be like an old door that's rubbing on the doorframe. We're going to tell you if it's rubbing that you have to shave that door down and make sure it's not rubbing any longer. Okay. So when we do our visual inspection, the first thing we're looking for is chipping paint. Second thing is old wood windows. That can be a problem. We can go over that if you'd like, but old wood windows can be a problem and then doors that are rubbing. We also will look in your common hallway and your stairs going upstairs have to have rubber or a carpeted stair treads if they're painted because paint your foot. Rubbing on that stair is another type of friction. And then on the outside, we're also looking at the soil around the foundation. So from the foundation we look at like five feet out to make sure the soil is covered. Now, grass, mulch, gravel, anything is a covering. So we do that visual inspection first and then we're going to be taking dust wipes on floors and windowsills. And those go to a lab. And then once they come back from the lab, as long as they pretty much lead free, then we can issue the certificate that you need. So when you take samples, you do the the wipe. Yep. And then you say ID number 486 is the floor. And exactly is that how you do it. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. We, we have to tell the lab the dimensions that we took because you can have a certain amount of lead per square inch. So we would do either a 12 by 12 square or 12 by 24. That's the maximum we can pick up. And we would do we take a swipe, we put that swipe in the bag. We we label the bag. We have a chain of custody that goes with it, that all gets sent to the lab. But it's very rigid. You whatever you put on that chain of custody has to match the bag. And that's the information you're giving the lab. Once that comes back from them, they give us a number of what's in that bag. How much lead was in that bag, if anything? Hopefully none. But if anything does come back with some lead in it, then we have to go back and read sample. So we're going to give you a call. And once we do the inspection, you don't want to hear from us again. So if we call you, that's a bad thing. If we email you, that's a good thing. So we've email, do your report, you cert and you're done. Or if we call, if we're calling you, it's because your dust wipes didn't pass. Now, the remedy to that is you have to clean them, clean the unit again or wherever the sample failed. So if it whether it failed inside the apartment or out in the common hallway, you're going to clean that area again. And then we do have to go back and take the samples Now off the floor in this room failed, but that one didn't. I have to take them all at the same time. So we recommend you clean everything one more time and that's the entire unit. And then we would have to come back and re sample. So they say this guy, the samples came back positive for lead in the kitchen. Mm hmm. All you're coming back to do is just the kitchen floor and everything all over. No, that's not true. It's the other way around. We're taking everything over again, so we have to take a minimum of three samples, and then there's always a blank. So we have to send in four samples to the lab. The blank is the scientist part of it to prove that there's nothing on the blank before we even get started. So let's say I take one in this room. I take one in the kitchen, I take one upstairs in a bedroom. If the upstairs bedroom fails, I still have to take all three of them over again. The next time I come back and the doors and windows are. Now, when you say the doors and windows, what do you mean? Because you tested the door. I don't have to test the doors and windows. Well, so you mean as far as like doing the visual inspection? Oh, no, because it's okay. I might have looked a little bit myself if I come back the second time, but it's usually only a couple of weeks from the time, the first time to the second time, unless there's some damage that has happened and it's visible and we do see it. Yes. But most of the time it's just taking the samples and then we're off again. Okay. Yeah, we don't have to actually physically look at everything all over again. So aside from the lead that's in the house, what about lead pipes going to the house? Well, the way they train us and in the years of our training, they say what might have been in, let's say a ten inch pipe out in the street years ago might only be eight inches now. And I don't know if those are the dimensions, but whatever the pipes are in the street, the the lead has or the water has minerals in it, and it kind of encapsulates those pipes. So if you talk to a plumber and they cut a pipe, they can see that sludge that's built up in that pipe. So those are minerals. It's nothing, is it? I don't know. Like if it was 10 minutes. Yes. I'm saying okay. I'm using that as an example. I don't know what the pipes let's say the pipe was ten inches and maybe it's only eight inches now. And that. So an inch on each side has sludge. GROSS Yes, it sounds gross, but a plumber will tell you it's not bad. It's not stuff that is dangerous to us. It's just whatever encapsulates that pipe. So I don't know the dimensions, but whatever it is, the water doesn't necessarily touch the pipes any longer. So now the pipes are going or the water is flowing through those pipes, but not really touching the lead. And then once it goes from there, it comes into the house. So the lateral that comes from the street to the house could also be led, but even that may have already been replaced. The street may have already been replaced. But there is also some money for the cities and towns to replace those pipes that the government has given out so that they can do that more so now and be able to start replacing more and more of the pipes in the street. But then you get from that lead pipes in the street and the lateral, then you had lead pipes in the house. Well, I don't see very many lead pipes in the house anymore because they're so old they would have deteriorated by now. So then you would go to copper, so they would replace it with copper, copper solder. The sort of that holds the copper pipes together also had led. Now, if you are living in the house and the water is flowing through the pipes on a regular basis, there's no the lead is not an exposure based on just the solder I have done. Vacant units, though vacant buildings, especially single families that have been vacant a while, and I've taken a water sample for the buyer and they do fail. And that's because it has sat in the pipes for some length of time. The remedy to that is flush your water out, run all your pipes for ten or 20 minutes, get all the water out of the pipes, and then let it sit for another 6 to 8 hours. And then we come in and re sample. And as long as that comes back, okay, then you're fine. But we don't find too much in a residential house that's been lived in. When I do these comprehensive inspections, one of the what is one of the samples I have to take is water. And so I don't find a lot of them fail. They fail more in buildings that have been vacant for some length of time. It's interesting. I didn't know that water you test for water also only in the comprehensive the landlord inspections. They do not require it. And part of the reason is we don't find it a lot in the water. So what is comprehensive? A comprehensive is where when we go in, we're testing all of the different painted surfaces from ceiling to floor more. We talked about that with like if somebody by somebody purchasing a property, we might not do a full comprehensive we might test just one window in this room. We would test one door potentially where a comprehensive is on testing for windows here, every single door frame, all your baseboard. So a comprehensive is literally that it is every water solid for four walls, a water sample, dust samples, soil samples outside. So we're testing every single surface where somebody is purchasing a property. If I had to do a comprehensive and the real estate agents would be very unhappy with me that I am there from morning until night to do that comprehensive. So what we do, though, is all of these windows have the same wood. So if I test 111 window, all the rest of them are going to be the same. If they had different windows. I definitely test different windows, but same thing with your doors. If you have the same doors, the same door history, then they're all going to be the same. But with a comprehensive, you have to test every single surface and water is included in that type of assessment because we do so many of those water samples and realize that they're not really the biggest problem when it comes to poisonings, it's mostly paint. So with the landlord inspections, they don't even require the water anymore. What other comprehensive that you haven't mentioned? That's pretty much. Yeah, that's it. Yes. Okay. Yes. So you mentioned soil. Can you talk about that? Sure. Yeah. Now, soil is contaminated on all old buildings. The reason for that is right now we're environment conscious. So we, you know, we scrape our houses nowadays, we're picking up the paint chips. But years ago they didn't do that. So 100 years ago, when that first layer paint was put on there and it was led 20 years later, it has to be painted again. They're scraping those particles. Those particles go into the soil. It never goes away unless you take that soil out and throw it away. It's still going to be there 100 years later. So soil it always has lead in it. Now they don't. They figure from the foundation maybe out four or five feet. That's the area that paint chips might have fallen and would have gotten into the soil middle of the yard. Nobody cares because the paint chips aren't going that far. So from the foundation out four or five feet, that area is where we expect to find lead. So you just have to have it covered. Now, you don't want to be planting any lake root vegetables that you like, a carrot or radish or anything in the soil because it might have lead absorption. So you want to plant those further away from the house. But now to make sure that that soil is safe, as long as kids can't make mud pies in it, then it's considered safe. So if they can play in the dirt or the dog can run through it and bring it into the house, you know, grass, mulch, gravel, that's all you need to cover soil to make sure it's safe. Okay. The landlord's inspections, the things that we look for, we could talk about that a little bit more. Windows is the biggest problem. So old wood windows in a historical building, for instance, those are difficult to be able to pass an inspection. So if a landlord has those windows and they have to keep them, you have to install some type of track in the side. That's what the problem is. So you have a wood track with a wood window. Every time it goes up and down, it creates that dust. And dust is actually what poisons children more than eating paint chips. The track can be installed, you can buy them. They're aluminum or vinyl. You have to shave the window down a little bit to make them fit. So it's not an easy process, but you then have to install the tracks and now the windows will go up and down, potentially with new ropes or sometimes wood pins, but you can get those old windows to pass an inspection safely. It's just you got to make sure that that you cover the well, install the tracks, cover the window well, make sure all the paint is intact. And then some landlords will say, well, my windows sustained, the outside of those windows are definitely painted. The inside might have been stained, but the outside always has led on it. If they weren't, then the rain and everything else that gets on them would have ruined the windows by now. Goodness. Like going through all that work just to be able to use an old wood window. Yeah, 150 bucks you can get a wind like. Yeah, well, there's a couple of reasons. People like them, first of all. So a lot of people like the old look of the window. But on top of that, if it's in a historical district, you can't change them. If you change them, you have to buy custom made windows. You can't just put a vinyl window in and in a historical home, historical homes are very difficult to be able to pass those windows. But people actually like the windows too. I have a lot of people that complain that they don't want to replace them. As a lead inspector. I wish we could replace all of those windows because it is a big problem. Dust is created and dust is what poisons children. Children run to the windows and they put their hands on the windowsill and get those particles on their hand. And then their hand goes in their mouth. And, you know, and that's where they're getting lead poisoning is from that dust that's created. Same thing with the doors rubbing off the doors rubbing. It creates dust, gets on the floor, kid puts their hands on the floor, puts that hand in their mouth. It has now has led dust on them. So inhaling is worse or. Well, inhaling is there's two ways you can get it by a paint chip or lead dust putting it in your mouth, or let's say a landlord comes in or or not. It doesn't have to be a landlord. I don't mean to insinuate that, but it could just be a homeowner who doesn't know. They come in, they start scraping their wood and their child is in the house and they might not think anything of it. Well, now you're going to be breathing those particles in. They haven't settled to the ground yet, so you're going to be breathing in those particles. I had a dad who had called us because his child had a lead poisoning, and I went to the house and the dad came upstairs from the basement and he was working downstairs, had dust on his clothes, picked the kid up when I was right there, picked him up, put him on his shoulder to say hi to him while I walked into the house. And I went downstairs and tested the basement and there was high levels of lead down there. So he walked upstairs, brought it with him on his clothes, carried the kid, the kid breathed, breathed. Yeah. Is that a word? Breathed it in. Sounds right. Breaths. And so the dad was poisoning his own child without even realizing it. But nobody knows that stuff unless you actually look into it or, you know, somebody who has been lead poisoned. It's not like anybody saying, Oh, I don't care about poisoning children. That's not the case. It's just being ignorant to the issue. And I don't mean that in a bad way. It just mean literally. You just don't know. You know, a lot of people think this lead law is a bunch of baloney, but I've seen so many people that have been have had children who have been lead poisoned. And we still have over a thousand children a year just in Rhode Island being lead poisoned. And unless it's your child, you might think, oh, you know, that's only a thousand people. Yeah, but what if it's your grandchild or your child? That thousand now matters. Only one matters to you, you know? So kids do anything to adults or. Yes, even elderly. It does do something to two adults. Now we have to ingest more than a child does. But it's fatigue, pain and joints, loss of appetite, cataracts, impotence, young people. If they're if somebody is a young man and he's a contractor, he shouldn't be working with lead paint without a respirator. So there are a lot of things that blood pressures and other one high blood pressure. There's a lot of symptoms. Kidney diseases is what the effects are down the road. So I had one contractor who took our class. He went back and he was an exterior painter. He went back and and had his blood tested. Now mine is zero. Use should should be zero. His level was a 72 and his doctor told him his kidneys are going to fail as he gets a little bit older. So that's what you're dealing with when you're a contractor, especially in exposed to it on a regular basis, Most likely probably inhaling the most. Yes. Yeah. He's not eating paint chips. Yeah, but a lot of contractors don't think lead is anything to worry about, so they consider even wearing a respirator. And the little doctor masks don't really get you too far. I've done construction a lot of times too, and I did it prior to me being in this business. I renovated a lot of properties and I'd wear those doctor masks. But you still take them off and you still get all that junk up your nose. You know, they're only so good. You really need good respirators when you're a contractor. I can imagine, like, you know, you're breathing it in, inhaling. I mean, your mouth is wet, so it's like absorbing into your mouth. You're swallowing. Yeah. There you go. You just. Yeah, And it just gets in the fibers of your nose. In your mouth. Yeah. So dangerous. It is dangerous. Yeah. So that's why Rhode Island's trying to that's why Rhode Island is, is enforcing this now. I think I said already the lead law is nothing new, but the enforcement is new. So now we've we're dealing with fines. So if you don't have your lead certificates, you can be fined$125 per unit per month. And then there's also a registry that all landlords have to register. They want all of the landlords contact information. And if you don't register, there's a $50 per unit per month fine. So that's a total of $175 a month. Now, excuse me, I've had landlords say, Well, I'll just up my rents by $175 and I won't do it and I'll just pay the fines. Well, that's going to happen for a short amount of time, but I'm sure somebody is going to go after you, whether it's the Department of Health, of the attorney general or somebody is going to force you to do it. So you're only going to get away with that for so long. Can they say, hey, listen, I have an appointment set up that I've called in two months ago, but I'm waiting on the waiting list or Well, right now the registry, you can't tell them that, but they are not signing anybody right now. The fines were supposed to go into play on October 1st. So they have put a grace period out there. They're not really telling us how long. But right now it's hard to get an appointment. And if you do it several months out, they realize that that's a problem. So they're not enforcing the fines right now. So just winter, just get your property ready and get it. Get on a schedule somewhere and then wait for your turn to get your inspection and be ready and be ready when we come. Yes. Because if you're not ready, we're going out a second time. And that's going to be several months later. And I don't remember if I've said this already, but make sure you clean, clean, clean, clean. That's the key. Change your water often. Use paper towels to clean your windowsills, and that just to make sure that you don't re contaminate the water, you know, astringent water. Like what? Do like a ten by ten area, ten feet by ten feet? Change the water, bring in new water. If you're using a mop, don't put you're going to keep putting it back into the bucket. So You don't want to pick it up on one side of the room and deposit it on another side. Yeah. So awesome. Great information. So how do people find you? Well, my company name is LED Safe Inspections and Consulting Inc. We are out of Rhode Island and Rhode Island. Of course, we're out of Rhode Island. We're out of Lincoln. But we do the whole state of Rhode Island. So our phone number is 4014755858. And then our email address is the lead paint guy at gmail.com. And yes, it does say guy and I am a girl, but I can't say the lead paint gal because I have men who work for me too. So it's the lead paint guy at gmail.com and we'll be glad to help you. We will try to give you as much information before we even come out. We're going to tell you what we look for so that you're going to be ready When we come out. We'll even email you a list of what we look for and make sure you follow the list. That's my best advice. We'll take care of you when we get there. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you very much for stopping by. All right. My age has got a flood. We all listen in house help. So they ain't doing it alone. They focus on clients negotiating with while the back end can demand. That's how we spin handling business. Watch them all climb.

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Kamil Sarji

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