Verification of Qualitative Spot Test Kits for Lead in Paint
The EPA Lead Renovation Repair and Painting (RRP) rule (PDF) (79 pp, 847 KB) includes a two phase process for evaluating and recognizing test kits that can be used to determine the presence of regulated levels of lead in lead-based paint surfaces.
EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) accepted applications for the first phase of the evaluation and recognition process (the 5% false negative rate) on September 1, 2008. Only test kits that were commercially available at that time were eligible to go through this evaluation process. Test kits were evaluated using a protocol developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and used in the NIST report entitled, "Spot Test Kits for Detecting Lead in Household Paint: A Laboratory Evaluation." EPA is currently evaluating the results of this testing and anticipates making and posting recognition determinations to the EPA Lead Web page in early summer 2009.
For additional information on Phase 1 testing, contact:
Sam Brown
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
Phone: 202-566-0490
The RRP rule also identifies the ETV Program for obtaining independent laboratory validation of test kit performance. ETV will verify test kits based on the criteria established for the second phase evaluation process (5% false negative and 10% false positive standards). For more information on the recognition process of the Phase 2 testing, please go to Overview of EPA's Lead Paint Test Kit Recognition Program web page. ETV expects to begin to solicit vendors for Phase 2 testing in May 2009. Additional information on the verification testing of the improved test kits may be found on the ETV Environmental and Sustainable Technology Evaluations (ESTE) Web Site.
For additional information on the ETV ESTE testing, contact:
Julius Enriquez
ETV Project Officer
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(513) 569-7285
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