EPA Strengthens Standards to Protect Children from Exposure to Lead Paint Dust

Today, Oct. 24, marking National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized stronger requirements for identifying and cleaning up lead paint dust in pre-1978 homes and childcare facilities. The final standards are the latest action in President Biden’s whole-of-government strategy to protect families and children from lead exposure. Children are especially vulnerable to the impacts of lead exposure, which can cause irreversible and life-long health effects, including behavioral problems, lower IQ, slowed growth and more. In adults, exposure can cause increased risk of cardiovascular disease and may cause cancer. EPA estimates that this rule will reduce the lead exposures of up to nearly 1.2 million people every year, of which 178,000 to 326,000 are children under the age of six.

The stronger standards deliver on the Biden-Harris administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan, announced by Vice President Kamala Harris in December of 2021, which harnesses the full breadth of the Administration’s authorities to protect children from the dangers of lead exposure, including historic investments secured by President Biden. This action also advances EPA’s strategy to address the significant disparities in lead exposure along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines.

“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. “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.”

“We can all breathe a little easier now that the EPA has significantly lowered its dust lead standard to protect children,” said Peggy Shepard, Co-Founder & Executive Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. “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. I applaud EPA’s action to address this deadly challenge for our children and families.”

There is no safe level of lead exposure, particularly for children. In children, lead can severely harm mental and physical development, slow down learning, and irreversibly damage the brain. In adults, lead can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function, and may cause cancer. If someone is impacted by lead exposure, there is no known antidote, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Today’s final rule reduces the level of lead in dust that EPA considers hazardous to any reportable level measured by an EPA-recognized laboratory. The rule also lowers the amount of lead that can remain in dust on floors, window sills and window troughs after a lead paint abatement occurs to the levels listed below, the lowest levels that can be reliably and quickly measured in laboratories.  This will result in significant reductions in exposures when compared to prior standards. The rule is strengthening these standards from:

• 10 micrograms per square foot (µg/ft²) to 5 µg/ft² for floors,
• 100 µg/ft² to 40 µg/ft² for window sills, and
• 400 µg/ft² to 100 µg/ft² for window troughs.

These levels reflect standards implemented by New York City in 2021. The new standards will better protect children and communities from the harmful effects resulting from exposure to dust generated from lead paint.

Property owners, lead-based paint professionals and government agencies may identify dust-lead hazards in residential and childcare facilities built before 1978 after learning that a child living there has a high blood lead level, or because of requirements for housing receiving federal funding, among other reasons. If lead abatement is needed, EPA’s Lead-Based Paint Activities Program requires individuals and firms performing the abatement to be certified and follow specific work practices. Following an abatement, testing is then required to ensure dust-lead levels are below the new post-abatement dust lead action levels before the abatement can be considered complete.

Although the federal government banned lead-based paint for residential use in 1978, it is estimated that 31 million pre-1978 houses still contain lead-based paint, and 3.8 million of them have one or more children under the age of six living there. Lead-contaminated dust is one of the most common causes of elevated blood lead levels in children, and even low levels of exposure can be harmful. Lead dust commonly results when lead-based paint deteriorates or is disturbed. Due to normal behaviors such as crawling and hand-to-mouth activities, young children are particularly at risk of higher exposure to ingesting this lead-containing dust.

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.

Earlier this month, EPA issued a final rule requiring drinking water systems across the country to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years. EPA also announced $2.6 billion in newly available drinking water infrastructure funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which is available to support lead pipe replacement and inventory projects. Together, these and other actions taken under the Biden-Harris Administration will help protect Americans from exposure to lead.

Background

Historically, EPA set the same standard for the level of lead found in dust from old paint that has to be reported and the amount of lead that can remain in dust on floors, window sills and window troughs after a lead paint abatement occurs. This action decouples the two levels, which were last updated in 2019 and 2021, respectively. This is being done in accordance with a May 2021 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, which explains that dust-lead reportable levels (previously called dust-lead hazard standards) must be based solely on health factors, while the dust-lead action levels (previously called dust-lead clearance levels) must consider the additional factors of safety, effectiveness and reliability. Today’s rule aligns both standards with the best available science, further strengthening EPA’s efforts to protect children from lead hazards.

EPA will host a public webinar to provide an overview of the rule on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. ET. Please use the registration link to register for this webinar.

Learn more about EPA’s dust-lead standards and the upcoming public webinar on this final rulemaking.

Learn more about Children's Health and Healthy School Environments.