MB Jessee Team Gets EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Certified!
Whew! I’m just back from a day-long lead safety and certification training. My brain is brimming with all the information I took in. The training was hosted by our friends, Sherwin Williams and the city of Oakland, and focused on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, or RRP as it is known. The rule says, in short, that any painting/renovation work that disturbs painted surfaces in residential homes or childcare facilities that were built prior to 1978 must be performed by EPA-certified contractors. As many of you may know, on April 22, 2010 RRP became the law of the land for painting contractors. MB Jessee Inc obtained its certification well ahead of the RRP enactment as did Matt Jessee, our company president. While that technically satisfied the legal requirements of the RRP law, MB Jessee wanted to go even further. The dangers of lead are very real, not only for ourselves and our employees, but for our clients as well. The more we know about how to minimize exposure to lead, the better. Attending the training with me today were five of our foremen and as well as our estimator, Ricardo de Jesus.
As we dove into the hefty training manual, I was delighted to discover that many, many of the safest procedures are already a part of MB Jessee standard operating procedure. Over the eight hour course I saw that in many cases, our preparation processes far exceed the new government mandates!
I’m proud to report that Ricardo and I passed the certification test with scores of 100% as did several of our foremen. We came away from the training not only EPA-certified, but more determined than ever to put safety first in everything that MB Jessee does!