Washington – Two weeks after set a national deadline to remove lead pipesThe Biden administration imposed strict new restrictions on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and child care facilities.
A final rule announced Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency limits lead dust in floors and windows in homes and child care facilities built before 1978 to levels so low as to be undetectable.
Paint containing lead was banned in 1978, but more than 30 million American homes are believed to still contain it, including nearly 4 million homes where children under the age of 6 live. Lead paint can die when damaged or disturbed, especially during home renovations or renovations.
“There is no safe level of lead,” said Michal Freedhoff, the EPA’s assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention. The new rules will bring the United States “closer to removing the dangers of lead-based paint from homes and child care facilities once and for all,” she said.
The EPA estimates the new rule will reduce lead exposure by 1.2 million people each year, including 178,000 to 326,000 children under the age of 6.
Lead is a neurotoxin that can impair brain development in children, lower IQ, cause behavioral problems and cause lifelong health effects. It also affects other organs, including the liver and kidneys.
The new rules, which take effect early next year, target the level of lead dust produced by paint. Currently, 10 micrograms per square foot is considered dangerous on the floor, and a concentration 10 times higher is considered dangerous on windows. The new rule brings both of the levels down to no detectable lead.
The proposed rule would also reduce the level at which lead abatement contractors are allowed to complete on properties identified as problematic. The level would be 5 micrograms per square foot for flooring and 40 micrograms per square foot for sills.
Individuals and companies performing abatement work must be certified and follow certain work practices. Tests are required next to ensure dust lead levels are below the new standard.
Environmental justice and public health experts cited the EPA’s longstanding rule, saying that lead poisoning disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color.
“We can all breathe easier now that the EPA has lowered dust lead standards significantly to protect children,” said Peggy Shepard, founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a New York-based advocacy group.
Shepard, who is a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, said public health experts have long known that there is no safe level of lead in children’s blood, but New York state leads the nation in cases of children with high blood levels. Black children in Harlem living below the poverty line are twice as likely to suffer from lead poisoning as poor white children, he said.
The U.S. government is gradually lowering standards for toxic lead levels in children’s blood, with the most recent change coming in 2021. But the EPA rule marks an effort to take more proactive action.
“If you rely on blood lead levels in children to indicate whether there is lead in the environment, we usually use children as canaries in the mine,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, a Boston College biology professor who directs the school. Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good.
The National Child Care Association said when the major rule was proposed last year, it could leave many child care centers struggling financially — especially in low-income neighborhoods, where facilities tend to be older. Without matching federal funding, the rule could discourage local early childhood care centers, the group said.
Earlier this month, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $420 million in funding to remove lead hazards from homes, including HUD-assisted housing. Additional HUD grants will continue to be available to help remove lead paint, the White House said.