Document VGBgE2eZkeEBdazYrywaLMMnp

Page 2 '/*'* Standards Division. Changes are said to primarily affect reporting requirements--baghouse emissions and maintenance schedules, waste disposal, and renovation and demolition. Congress has budgeted $2 million for EPA to study asbestos in buildings. The money is expected to be matched equally by contributions from the private sector. The research, which will be conducted by the Health Effects Institute, will focus on airborne exposure levels in building, the significance of peakexposure, and the effectiveness of various asbestos management and abatement actions. In early November, President Reagan signed into law the Asbestos Information Act of 1988. It requires any company that manufactured asbestos-containing materials used in buildings to provide EPA with information on- the years of manufacture, types and classes, and "other identifying characteristics" of their products. EPA then will compile and publish this information so that building owners' can use it for identification. There are no enforcement or penalty provisions yet written in the law. The NAHB Remodelers Council, a group within the National Association of Home Builders, will soon publish an asbestos handbook for remodelers. It intends to warn remodeling contractors that there are unusual dangers when working with asbestos-containing materials, especially with laws and potential liabilities. The handbook advises that the work should be left for trained specialists, like asbestos abatement professionals. AIA/NA has spent time providing technical assistance to NAHB on federal regulations and agency findings. In Michigan, still pending is the proposed permissible exposure limit of 0.1 asbestos fibers/cubic centimeter, as part of the state's occupational safety and health plan. The state legislature joint committee on administrative rules must give it their approval yet. With the legislature adjourned, however, the situation will remain pending until next year. In 1989, Lansing lawmakers will also be considering a bill to require California Proposition 65-type warnings to persons before exposing them to asbestos. State sen. C. Dingell is currently preparing such a 1 egislative measure. Colorado's Air Quality Control Commission is studying changes to its asbestos emission standards, including Such requirements: the bagging of asbestos mill tailings; the immediate installation of HEPA air filtration systems in milling, manufacturing and fabricating operations, and the disposal of all asbestos waste in EPA-approved land fills. AIA/NA supplied the Commission with related comments as well as background to the EPA friable definition. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued emergency temporary regulations in August that alleviate state requirements for some contractors from asbestos project registration and clarify other provisions. Contractors doing asbestos-related work but who are exempt from the state's asbestos certification examination by statute are not required to register for the time being. On October 19, the Division CTD002088