Recently in Detection of Safety Hazards Category

Lead-based Paint Dangerous for Children

Young children are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning since they are more likely to ingest lead paint chips, flakes, or dust and are more sensitive to the adverse health effects of lead. Elevated lead levels in young children can trigger

• learning disabilities
• decreased growth
• hyperactivity
• impaired hearing
• brain damage

Lead can be found in a number of places inside and outside the home. For example, lead can be found in household dust from deteriorating lead-based paint or from soil tracked into the house. It can also be found in drinking water coming from old lead pipes, fixtures and solder.

"Childhood lead poisoning is easily preventable with the right information and awareness. This grant will help Arizona tribal communities raise awareness about preventing lead's adverse health effects," said Administrator Jackson. "This project is an important example of the efforts happening across the country to protect our children from a major health threat."

Lead-based Paint Outreach to Native American Tribes

The Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona is developing culturally specific outreach materials to educate tribal families, especially parents of young children, and tribal staff on the health risks to children from exposure to lead-based paint.

Lead Awareness for Facility Maintenance Personnel

The program specifically reaches out to facility maintenance personnel to stress the importance of using lead-safe work practices when renovating buildings.

The use of lead-based paint in U.S. residential housing was banned in 1978.

Approximately 75% of the U.S. housing stock built before 1978, or 64 million homes, contain some lead-based paint.

For information on EPA's lead paint program, go to: http://www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/lead

For information on lead in paint, dust and soil, visit: http://www.epa.gov/lead

For information on protecting your family from lead hazards, visit: http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/leadinfo.htm#where

Remodeling efforts to recover from fire damage can be driven by insurance claims, appraisals and payments.

In researching health insurance, I ran across an "insurance evaluator" who helped homeowners after recent California fires.  The court notes prove helpful for both homeowners and service providers. 

A lot of the monies that will be available for recovery and remodeling after a disaster result from getting the paperwork right!  And it starts BEFORE the fire.  And it continues AFTER the fire...and BEFORE work begins.

This excerpt of the court documents points to some best practices for both homeowners as they gather information for risk management -- and service providers who need to provide helpful estimates and evaluations:  

In late October 2004 Allstate provided Kacha's attorney, Peter Lawrence, and Dawson with a draft form appraisal award. The form included several pages of damaged items Kacha claimed were covered under the policy, such as kitchen cabinets and flooring, garage cabinets and flooring, and carpet and interior walls. For each item, the form provided: "Damage, if any, to the [e.g., kitchen cabinets] attributable to the fire of October 26, 2003." The form included a line for the entry of a dollar amount for each item.

The appraisal was held at Kacha's home, on November 15 and 16, 2004, and January 4, 2005. Allstate presented an appraisal brief that stated, "[T]his is not your standard appraisal where value of the loss is the only issue; there are still many issues regarding the existence and scope of damage that have not been resolved between the parties. This is due in large part to the insureds' prematurely demanding appraisal without coming to an agreement upon a scope of loss or even providing Allstate with the specifics of their claim." The brief asserted that damage to numerous items was not caused by smoke or heat from the Cedar Fire.

On November 15, Allstate provided the panel members with its draft appraisal award form. The parties had not yet agreed to the form, however, and Judge Joseph instructed them to do so before the conclusion of the hearing.

On November 16, the parties stipulated in writing that the appraisal panel "should utilize replacement cost value less depreciation to determine the actual cash value of the loss." The parties also stipulated to the amount of loss for certain items, including interior light fixtures and cleaning of windows, HVAC ducts and "[o]zone." The same date, Kacha increased the value of his loss to $858,393.87, and that prompted Judge Joseph to schedule the third hearing day.

Insurance services cover a range of helpful information management opportunities to "meet in the middle" of fair settlements that help homeowners manage their risk. Professional Insurance Evaluations is just one of the companies that provides a wide range of such services to sort through the complications of insurance and recovery:

Claims Recovery

Professional Insurance Evaluations maximizes your insurance policy claims by knowing exactly what is covered in your policy, determining the extent of the damage, and aiding you in any disputed claims resolution process.

Fire Insurance Claims

Professional insurance Evaluations can help with your claims resulting from fire damage. In the event of a fire, often times the damage is severe and the claims large, we can help recover your losses for known and unknown hidden damages to real and personal property.

Business Interruption Claims

Business interruption insurance protects policy holders from losses due to the interruption of business operations. Time element losses of business income, extra expenses, loss of rents or additional living expense are measured and valued.

Expert Witness

An insurance expert witness provides support in a legal case by having knowledge about insurance, claims handling, and insurance policy coverage analysis that can be relied upon in litigation of disputed claims.

Catastrophe Expert

Professional Insurance Evaluations is an expert in insurance policy claims resulting from catastrophe property damage. General adjuster, Kevin Dawson worked on insurance claims resulting from Hurricane Katrina, the San Diego Cedar Fire, and California wild fires and many other catastrophes during his long career serving policy holders and insurance companies.

Water, Smoke, Storm, Vandalism, Vehicle, Explosion Damage Claims

Professional Insurance Evaluations can help recover insurance policy holder claims resulting from water, smoke, storm, vandalism, vehicle, and explosion damage to property and time element losses.

 

Read more at Professional Insurance Evaluations, a California service company

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that $4 million is available to improve methods to detect and control lead-based paint, mold and other housing-related safety hazards that harm children. These grants will be awarded competitively to multiple Academic and non-profit institutions, State, Tribal or local governments that advance the recognition and control of residential health and safety hazards or improve our understanding of the link between housing and health.

"Anything HUD can do to continue to improve the methods for protecting our children from dangerous home hazards is crucial to American families, their children and their future," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "Investing in healthy homes is not only good for health reasons, but good for the environment and the economy as well."

These grants will further the implementation of HUD's Healthy Homes Strategic Plan, and the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Healthy Homes, both recently released, which encourage government agencies, other research organizations, and scientists to develop and support a portfolio of rigorous healthy homes research. In addition, both documents recommend that agencies and sectors work together to provide guidance and technical assistance to support safe, healthy, and environmentally friendly housing options.

HUD will award approximately six to ten grants ranging from $250,000 to $800,000 each. Applications may be downloaded from the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control's Website. The application provides instructions, including submitting proposals by Federal Express (FedEx), United Parcel Services (UPS) and overnight Express Mail delivery services. The deadline for receiving grants is 5:00 PM eastern time, August 18, 2009.