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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed

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To: yard_man who wrote (44751)12/6/2000 10:13:15 PM
From: GraceZ  Read Replies (1) of 436258
 
Thanks for the clarification on the Dioxin. That's what I get for trusting my memory. I think Dioxin is higher on the list than PCBs for carcinogens.

There is lots of evidence that former Superfund action has resulted in huge amounts of money being spent on lawyers and very little in actually cleaning up these sites. Its been a fiasco from the start.

I got a glimpse into what it was like to be left holding the environmental bag after buying a few rental properties in Baltimore City. The housing stock in Baltimore is loaded with lead paint because most of the houses are older than sixty years. Lawyers put flyers through the mail slots in the city trolling for cases. Your insurance company has a nice fat exclusion clause even if they covered the house from way back when. The government will sign you up for limited liability if you submit to expensive and exhaustive removal and inspection routines. It dawned on me who should have paid for this liability when I went to my paint store to buy lead encapsulation paint (encapsulation is far better than removal). The guy behind the counter said, "Gee, we haven't sold paint with lead in it for twenty years."

In the last 10 years landlords that don't want the liability have dumped 40,000 houses on the city. Its done wonders for neighborhoods to have so many vacant houses, not to mention the value of the houses that I'm the proud owner of.

What kills me is that most people still don't know how dangerous lead paint removal is and insist on doing it themselves without the proper equipment. I've stopped more than one of my friends with small children from taking a heat gun to baseboards in restoring their old houses. I even had a friend in California tell me that they didn't have a lead paint problem there because no one ever talks about it. She was giving painted wood paneling she ripped out of her old house to a neighbor for a child's playhouse. I convinced them to test it first and it was loaded with lead paint.

The environmental nightmare gets a little more personal when its in your basement and some councilor at your child's school is saying you might want to consider getting your son or daughter tested for lead paint poisoning.
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