WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday finalized stronger standards for identifying and cleaning up lead paint dust in pre-1978 U.S. homes and childcare facilities.
According to an EPA estimate, the new rule will cut lead exposures of up to 1.2 million people each year, including hundreds of thousands of children.
“Too often our children, the most vulnerable residents of already overburdened communities, are the most profoundly impacted by the toxic legacy of lead-based paint,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in a statement. “EPA is getting the lead out of communities nationwide. These protections will reduce lead exposures for hundreds of thousands of people every year, helping kids grow up healthy and meet their full potential.”
Lead exposure can cause lower IQ, slowed growth and behavioral problems in children. For adults, lead exposure can lead to increased cardiovascular risk including increased blood pressure, decreased kidney function and may cause cancer.
The final rule adopted by the EPA cuts the level of lead in dust that EPA considers hazardous to “any reportable level measured by an EPA-recognized laboratory.”
The new stronger rule also lowers the amount of lead that can remain in paint dust on floors, windowsills and window troughs once a lead paint abatement occurs.
Testing is required following an abatement to make sure lead-based paint dust levels are below the new lead levels before the abatement can be considered complete.
The EPA said there is no safe lead level in blood.
“For decades, the academic and advocacy communities have understood that there is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood. I am a New Yorker whose state leads the nation in cases of children with elevated blood levels. I am an environmental justice leader based in Harlem where studies show that Black children living below the poverty line are twice as likely to suffer from lead poisoning as poor white children,” Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, said in a statement. “I applaud EPA’s action to address this deadly challenge for our children and families.”
The federal government banned lead paint for residential use in 1978. An estimated 31 million pre-1978 houses still contain lead-based paint. Of that number 3.8 million of them have one or more children living there.
“Communities of color and lower-income communities are often at greater risk of lead exposure because deteriorated lead-based paint is more likely to be found in lower-income areas. Communities of color can also face greater risk of lead-based paint exposure due to the legacy of redlining, historic racial segregation in housing, and reduced access to environmentally safe and affordable housing,” the EPA said in a statement.
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