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New Jersey Lead Safe Law will be 2 years old in July of 2024.   The law is attempting to eliminate lead paint hazards inside rental properties in New Jersey.  Landlords are confused regarding what constitutes a Lead Hazard?  

the general definition of a Leda Hazard is as follows:  Lead-Based Paint Hazards: Any condition that causes exposure to lead from dust-lead hazards, soil-lead hazards, or lead-based paint that is deteriorated or present in chewable surfaces, friction surfaces, or impact surfaces, and that would result in adverse human health effects.

New Jersey's lead safe law is interior inspection only so, a lead hazard outside is not covered by the inspection, although technically if you have deteriorated exterior lead paint, that is a hazard, but I digress.    The lead hazard under the law is interior hazards.         

Your lead inspector who Likely is not an environmental consultant, saw damaged paint and flagged a lead hazard.    The photo to the left is deteriorated paint.

Deteriorated Paint means any interior or exterior paint that is peeling, chipping, chalking or cracking or any paint located on an interior or exterior surface or fixture that is damaged or deteriorated.

Older properties have a near 100% chance of having some layer of lead paint, but realistically speaking that lead is covered by multiple coats of non-lead paint, since lead paint was banned in 1978.  

Lead-based paint is usually not a hazard if it is in good condition, and the paint is not on an impact or friction surface, such as a window. Deteriorating lead-based paint (peeling, chipping, chalking, cracking, or damaged paint) is a hazard and needs attention. Lead dust can form when lead-based paint is scraped, sanded, or heated. Dust also forms when painted surfaces bump or rub together. Lead chips and dust can reside on surfaces and objects that people touch.

New Jersey Lead Law assumes that for a visual inspection, any deteriorated paint going to be automatically assumed to be leaded paint and is a hazard and must be addressed.

Interim controls are a set of measures designed to reduce temporarily human exposure or likely exposure to lead-based paint hazards, including specialized cleaning, repairs, maintenance, painting, temporary containment, ongoing monitoring of lead-based paint hazards or potential hazards.

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If lead-based paint hazards are found during an inspection, the owner of the dwelling unit must remediate the lead-based paint hazard by using lead-based paint hazard control methods such as interim controls,  or abatement. Colloquially, remediation is often used synonymously with interim controls and does not include abatement; however, in the context of P.L.2021, c.182, encompasses both interim controls and abatement.

The general definition of a Lead Paint Hazard as per HUD is:

 Any condition that causes exposure to lead from dust-lead hazards, soil-lead hazards, or lead-based paint that is deteriorated or present in chewable surfaces, friction surfaces, or impact surfaces, and that would result in adverse human health effects.

The NJ Lead Safe Law P.L.2021, c.182, assumes all interior paint is lead paint, so deteriorated paint triggers a lead paint hazard.  The law allows an out for owners:

If deteriorated paint is found during the course of a visual assessment, the owner of a dwelling may elect to order a dust wipe inspection to confirm the presence of lead-based paint.  The wipe samples in this situation included window sill sampling as well as the floor below the deteriorated paint, both samples confirmed lead dust and exceeded applicable standards.

This law does not require or reference XRF to be included with a lead inspection, although use of an XRF could 100% confirm if the paint contains lead.    Owners can elect to have a limited XRF testing performed of the deteriorated paint, to show that the paint is indeed NOT LEAD-containing.   Since the lead law allows municipalities to have some flexibility in enforcing the lead law this approach would be contingent on the municipality accepting the argument get a lead-free cert based on XRF and be exempt so if an owner is willing to pay for XRF, it can be used.  The above photo shows a painted floor, which clearly is a new paint or coating and would not be expected to contain lead, testing of the paint can provide support that a lead hazard is not present. 

Environmental regulations are confusing, Curren Environmental has over 26 years helping clients navigate the regulatory landscape.  Call the lead experts:

856-858-9509