PROVIDENCE -- An expert on lead-paint inspections testified yesterday that in surveying thousands of houses across the country that had been treated with lead paint, only about 5 percent actually posed hazards.
Patrick Connor, president of Connor Environmental Services, a Baltimore-based company that does lead-paint inspections and environmental consulting for major property owners in many states, also said he rarely sees exposed lead paint on the insides or outsides of houses.
"It's typically under four layers of non-lead-based paint," said Connor, the first witness called by the eight national paint companies who are the defendants in the state's landmark lead-poisoning lawsuit.
The attorney general's office is trying to prove in this lawsuit that the paints made and sold in the first half of the last century are a public nuisance because they continue to poison thousands of Rhode Island children each year as they peel and wear away on houses.
If the state wins this trial, it plans to move for additional trials to establish liability and remedies.
The paint company lawyers insist the paints are safe if well maintained. Connor testified that state and federal laws, and his own experience, support that theory.
The state's witnesses had testified that lead paint, even if well-maintained, always poses a hazard because it can get banged up by children and it tends to become chalky as it ages.
Connor, who said he has personally inspected 600 homes, testified that he has never seen lead paint chalking, although he has read about it.
He also said he has never seen it exposed by someone hanging a picture or by a child banging into a wall with a Big Wheel.
He said he only recommends complete removal of lead-based paint when it's on badly deteriorated surfaces.
It's preferrable to keep the paints intact under latex coatings and to clean regularly, he said.
"We know from testing that in-place management does work," Connor said.
Under questioning from state lawyer Leonard Decof, Connor testified that other than preparing for the trial, he had visited Rhode Island one other time in his life.
He said he never inspected a house in Rhode Island. As part of his preparations for the trial, he said he attended six open houses and he drove around a number of neighborhoods.
He also conceded he didn't know there are 21 licensed environmental lead inspectors in Rhode Island and 65 licensed lead technicians.
