Kokua Line
Kokua Line
I have an old home with lead-based paint. How should this problem be handled when I repaint? Also, I may have a problem with asbestos in my floor tiling. Older tiling, put in 1962, has black adhesive, which I'm sure has asbestos. But I'm not worried because it's in a storage room and I know all about encapsulation. But in the late 1970s, we put in tile with a self-adhesive that is now coming off. If it has asbestos, what do we do? I think lots of people may have this problem. Lead-based paint poses
risks to kids and momsYou're wise to be concerned about both possible health hazards, say state Department of Health officials.
To find out how to handle both concerns, call the department's Indoor Air Quality Section at 586-5800, said environmental health specialist Tom Lileikis.
The department doesn't do the actual testing or checks, but can refer you to those who do (or just look in the telephone directory Yellow Pages under environmental labs). It can also provide you with information.
Just on lead-based paint, there are reams of written material, said toxicologist J.P. Michaud, with the Health Department's Hazard Evaluation and Response Office.
One way to deal with lead-based paint is to cover it with something else, but not with another paint. "If you just paint it over, the paint can still peel and chip and children can eat these chips, which taste sweet, and get poisoned that way," Michaud said
Lead is especially dangerous to children and pregnant women.
Homes built before 1978 used paint which contained significantly higher percentages of lead than those built afterward. Since 1978, homes that do have lead-based paint have less than 1 percent, Michaud said.
"Some states require the effort to redo a house (with lead-based paint) be done by certified people, and that can cost between $5,000 to $15,000 a house," he said.
That's not the case in Hawaii.
Of asbestos, "There is no health risk associated with asbestos unless it's in a damaged condition," Lileikis said.
The recommendation is to leave it alone, unless it's deteriorating, or if you're going to renovate or do anything to disturb the material, he said.
The Environmental Protection Agency regulates the removal of asbestos-containing materials from all commercial and public buildings, schools, condominium and apartment buildings and townhouses with more than four units -- basically everything except single-family homes.
That means if there are plans to do anything that might deteriorate or damage friable asbestos material, such as the ceiling "popcorn" material or material you can crumble by hand, "you have to determine if there is asbestos prior to the disturbance," Lileikis said. "If it is friable asbestos, then it must be taken out properly."
Can a homeowner can be cited for having two city trash cans out on their rubbish day? People who live across the street roll out their container to our side of the street to a home where a couple leaves for work before the rubbish is picked up. I don't know if the couple knows these people are doing this. They do this because the rubbish truck picks up our side of the street first. It comes back a couple of hours later to do their side of the street. Call the city refuse collection yard in your district with the address, said refuse collection administrator David Shiraishi.
Someone will talk to your neighbors about keeping their container in front of their house.
"They should keep it on their side of the street," Shiraishi said. "Our routes are designed to have a certain number of carts. If you (move the container around), in theory you would have more carts than you should on that route."
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com
