EPA to unveil lead-dust standard this week

By Ellie Borst | 10/22/2024 01:38 PM EDT

The proposal aims to force lead-based paint removal in millions of buildings to minimize childhood exposure to the brain-damaging heavy metal.

Children that have high levels of lead in their blood walk past a peeling lead paint wall in their apartment in Brooklyn.

Children walk past a peeling lead paint wall July 25, 2003, in their apartment in New York City. EPA is set to release a new rule with a near-zero-tolerance standard for detections of lead in dust, which most often stems from degrading lead-based wall paint. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

EPA is days away from releasing its updated standards for lead contamination in dust, a move that could lead to costly paint removal treatments in millions of U.S. buildings.

“We expect the final rule will be announced by the end of the week,” agency spokesperson Remmington Belford said in an email. The White House completed its review of the rule Monday, according to the Office of Management and Budget’s website.

The July 2023 proposed rule would establish a near-zero-tolerance hazard standard for detections of lead in dust, which becomes contaminated most often through degrading wall paint.

Advertisement

Even though the federal government banned the neurotoxic heavy metal in paint in 1978, EPA estimates 31 million homes still have lead-based paint. Approximately 3.8 million of those homes house at least one child under the age of 6 — the population at the highest risk of lower IQs, behavioral problems, decreased kidney function or other health effects due to exposure.

GET FULL ACCESS