The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed strengthening requirements for removing lead-based paint dust from homes and child care facilities built before 1978, an effort to eliminate lead exposure that may require of millions of property owners to pay for abatement.
Lead is a neurotoxin and exposure can damage the brain and nervous system, especially in infants and young children.
If finalized, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the regulation will reduce lead exposure for as many as 500,000 young children each year.
“There is no safe level of lead,” said Michal Freedhoff, the Environmental Protection Agency’s assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution. “Even low levels are harmful to children’s health, and this proposal will bring us closer to eliminating lead-based paint hazards from homes and child care facilities across the US once and for all. everyone.”
The proposed regulation would not require property owners or child care facilities to proactively test for lead dust. But if a child shows symptoms of lead exposure, through a blood test or other measure, it can trigger state and local requirements for testing.
Results that confirm the presence of any level of lead dust will require property owners to pay for cleanup, EPA officials said. “This dramatically increases the number of facilities that may be required to remediate lead paint hazards,” Ms. Freedhoff.
The regulation will apply to facilities regularly used by children 6 years of age or younger, including child care centers, preschools and kindergarten classrooms. Young children are at high risk of exposure due to activities such as crawling and hand-to-mouth play. Lead poisoning can cause behavioral problems, learning disabilities and a decline in measured intelligence levels.
The federal government banned lead-based paint for residential use in 1978. But the EPA estimates that 31 million homes built before that year contained lead-based paint, 3.8 million of which were home to one or more children under 6 years of age.
Many of the buildings that would be subject to the proposed regulation are older structures located in low-income neighborhoods.
Building and business owners who may be affected said they are concerned about the potential costs of lead dust abatement.
“I don’t want children to be in an environment with lead,” said Cindy Lehnhoff, director of the National Child Care Association. “But as an industry, we are struggling. We just need one more thing to get us out, to make childcare unaffordable and less available.”
“The federal government needs to come up with money to help implement this,” he added.
Greg Brown, a vice president for the National Apartment Association, which represents landlords, said his organization wants to work with the government.
“Policymakers must work with industry to help protect the most vulnerable populations from potential lead exposure and help provide the resources needed to correct any potential risks that may arise,” said Mr. Brown said in a statement.
But, he added, “The responsibility cannot be placed solely on apartment owners and operators to solve the problem with testing and remediation requirements.”
The rule would not require homeowners to test their homes for lead paint dust before selling but if such tests are done, sellers would have to disclose the results to potential buyers. .
Lead dust usually occurs when paint has deteriorated or been disturbed. It can remain in a building even after the lead paint is removed, such as after a renovation.
Under the proposed regulation, any amount of lead dust on floors and window sills would qualify as “hazardous” and require abatement, compared to the current “hazardous” standard of 10 micrograms per square foot for floors and 100 micrograms per square foot for window sills.
But if dust is still visible after abatement measures, building owners are not required to completely remove it, the EPA said. The amount legally allowed to remain is at a lower level than currently allowed, the agency said.
The rule change is the result of a May 2021 opinion by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in response to a complaint against the EPA filed by several environmental and health groups.
“This is a step forward in the nation’s long-delayed effort to eliminate lead exposures in the millions of homes and child care facilities that still have lead-based paint,” said Eve Gartner, director of toxics strategies at Earthjustice, which represents some of the plaintiffs. “Our clients in these lawsuits are grateful and look forward to the expedited finalization and implementation of this important rulemaking.”
The proposed rule will be open to public comment for 60 days, after which the EPA may revise it in response to those comments before finalizing it and implementing it next year.