NPCA Annual Meeting landmark agreement with state attorneys general will save industry “millions”, Doyle says at meeting

NPCA Annual Meeting landmark agreement with state attorneys general will save industry “millions”, Doyle says at meeting

The coatings industry will save “millions and millions of dollars”as a result of the NPCA's recent negotiation of a landmark agreement with state attorneys general that led to the creation of a sweeping lead-hazards labeling and education program, NPCA President Andy Doyle said at the association's Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL.

The agreement gives the industry a great opportunity to lead the way in addressing the health hazards posed by old lead-based paint and avoid the costly and ill-advised litigation that primarily benefits trial lawyers, Doyle said in remarks during the Annual Meeting's opening session. The NPCA's launch of the lead-hazards labeling and education program ranks at the top of an extensive list of significant NPCA accomplishments over the past year, Doyle told participants of Annual Meeting. The lead-hazards labeling and education program represents a “serious commitment by our industry”, Doyle said,adding that the training program alone will cost the industry $4 million. But he said “the historic agreement easily saved the industry hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years, by resisting efforts by the AGs to establish a punitive tobacco-styled fund”.

In addition, Doyle said “the reservoir of good will generated by this agreement will go a long way toward reinforcing a favorable public perception of the industry and toward creating a climate in which attorneys-general can point to the agreement as a reason not to rush into court”.

Doyle, in a review of major issues faced by the industry and association,also said that the NPCA is working to meet the challenge of crucial regulatory and legislative initiatives involving air-quality issues in California and the northeastern United States, and at the federal level in Washington.

Other key issues cited by Doyle include NPCA and industry involvement in a project aimed at devising programs to deal with post- consumer paint;participation in the response of an alliance of industry groups to the sweeping REACH chemicals-policy initiative in Europe; industry response to increased restrictions on marine antifoulant coatings; and efforts in Congress to enact legislation aimed at addressing the threat to the industry posed by runaway asbestos litigation.

But Doyle was able to point to several significant successes achieved by the NPCA and the industry to deter the threat posed by lead- paint litigation and legislation. In addition to the agreement with the attorneys general from nearly all the states, the industry has scored several victories with the dismissal of lead-paint lawsuits in Milwaukee, California, New Jersey, and Chicago. Also, he said that an NPCA “model lead bill”, which emphasizes landlord responsibility in preventing old lead-paint hazards, is moving close to passage in at least two states. The NPCA is targeting 11 key states in working to gain legislative enactment of the bill, he said.

In addition, Doyle said that the legislation has been introduced in the US Senate that would provide a $1,500 annual tax credit for homeowners and landlords who pay for in-place management of lead paint on their properties.

Other highlights of the Annual Meeting included an incisive and thought-provoking keynote address by former US Congressman John Kasich and the presentation of the NPCA's highest honor, the George Baugh Heckel Award, to RPM International Inc. Chairman Thomas C. Sullivan. The meeting's forum sessions,meanwhile, offered perspectives on international business alliances for small-and medium-sized coatings companies; strategies designed to anticipate market trends; and ways to deal with rising raw-material and energy costs.

Also at the meeting, Sullivan concluded his two-year term as NPCA chairman,and turned the leadership of the association over to new Chairman Thomas C. Osborne, President and CEO of Tnemec Co. Inc., who was elected to a two-year term. Edward J. Donnelly Jr, Group Vice-President, DuPont Coatings and Color Technologies, has been elected vice chairman and treasurer.

A more comprehensive review of the Annual Meeting will be available soon on the PCI Web site: www.pcimag.com