EPA to give proposed lead-hazards standards yea or nay.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed standards that, if accepted, will lower the amount of lead in paint, dust, and soil that the agency considers a hazard. They would identify hazards in most housing built before 1978, the year lead paint was banned, and in child-occupied facilities, such as day care centers.

Under the new standards, lead-based paint would be considered in poor condition and hazardous if there is more than 2 square feet of deteriorated paint on interior components with large surface areas, such as walls, ceilings, and doors; more than 10 square feet of deteriorated paint on exterior components with large surface areas, such as walls; or deteriorated paint on more than 10 percent of the total surface of interior and exterior components, such as window sills, baseboards, soffits, and trim.

The proposed hazard standards for lead dust are 50 micrograms per square foot or higher for uncarpeted floors and 250 micrograms per square foot or higher for interior window sills.

Lead in soil is evaluated based on the yard-wide average concentration of lead in parts per million (ppm) by weight. Soil containing lead that equals or exceeds 2,000 ppm would be considered hazardous.

The new proposal would also lower the reporting threshold for facilities that release lead and lead compounds into the air, water, and soil. Facilities are currently required to report releases only if they manufacture or process more than 25,000 pounds of lead and lead compounds annually or use more than 10,000 pounds annually. According to the EPA, these high thresholds severely limit reporting. The new standard would require facilities that manufacture, process, or use 10 pounds of lead and lead-compound releases a year to report the releases. The EPA says this would increase reporting by about 13 percent--about 15,000 reports--and substantially increase the amount of information available to the public.

Ted Flerlage, a Baltimore lawyer who represented a plaintiff in a recent lead-paint poisoning case, said that setting standards for "safe" levels of lead is like setting standards for "safe" levels of asbestos. "No level is safe," Flerlage said. "New standards won't help those who have already been poisoned by lead, and they won't help those who may be poisoned." The only safe amount of lead is no lead, he said.

The EPA released the proposal's preliminary version in 1998. The full text of the final version is currently under review by the EPA's Office of Management and Budget and must be released by December 22, 2000. For more information, go to the EPA's Web site at http://www.epa.gov/ Lead/leadhaz.htm.