EPA fails to lead on lead.

• Author: Fitz, Don
• Position: Lead: The Poisoning Continues - Environmental Protection Agency

Do you think that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) helps protect the environment? Do you believe that it takes the lead in policies on toxins that endanger human health? If you are skeptical, don't feel alone. Lead activists from across the country charge that the federal agency is missing the chance to reduce exposure to lead in paint and is actually undermining existing standards of safety.

At issue is the EPA's proposed "Lead Safe Work Requirements to Protect Children during Renovation, Repair and Painting." [1] Blood lead levels of many children have increased after remodeling homes built before 1978 (when lead was banned from paint). Disturbing lead-based paint usually releases lead in dust or fumes.

When Congress passed the Toxic Substance Control Act in 1992, Section 402 required the EPA to draft standards that would minimize exposure to lead during home repairs. [2] Though Congress instructed the EPA to compile rules for lead safe practices by 1996, the agency failed to act for nearly 10 years. After being threatened with a lawsuit and receiving a warning from Senator Barack Obama, the EPA finally published a proposed rule on lead hazards on January 10, 2006. The EPA claims that it will finalize the rule in early 2007. [3, 4]

The 10-years tardy proposal provoked many outraged responses. Instead of protecting public health, the EPA proposal avoids areas it was directed to address, tries to replace good testing procedures with bad ones, and attempts to roll back some of the most important safeguards on lead in existence.

Its first responsibility was to speak out on issues that affect childhood lead poisoning. According to the Sierra Club's Ed Hopkins, "EPA's rule ignores 14,200 child care centers that have significant lead-based paint hazards." These centers care for 470,000 children. [5]

Additionally, the proposed rule says nothing concerning dangerous work practices on building exteriors. This is important for children's health because practices such as sandblasting on building exteriors can spread lead dust in streets, schoolyards and playgrounds. [6]

It remains unclear whether lack of attention to these areas is a blessing in disguise, since so much of the EPA proposal could prove harmful. A storm of controversy is brewing over how to determine if home renovation has created a lead hazard.

For years, the accepted method for measuring the degree of lead danger in buildings has been "dust wipe samples." A cloth is used to wipe dust from key areas of a house and it is then sent for laboratory analysis. Multiple studies have confirmed that the amount of lead in dust wipes correlates with blood lead levels of children living in the homes. The more lead dust there is on the cloth, the more lead-poisoned the children are. [7]

EPA's proposed rule would toss out this tried and scientifically accepted method. And what would replace it? The EPA hopes to initiate its own "white glove methodology," which Rebecca Morley of the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) calls "baby wipes on a mop." [8] The white glove method involves wiping windowsills and floors with white disposable cleaning cloths and then looking to see if dust is visible on the cloth. [9]

Both the dust wipe and white glove tests gather dust on cloth. The major difference is that dust wipes are sent to a lab...