Building on one of its all-time success stories, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it plans to adopt a more stringent health standard for airborne lead to protect the nation's children.
Under the long-awaited proposal, the amount of lead allowed in the air would be dramatically lower than the current limit, which was adopted 30 years ago. Nationally, airborne lead has dropped nearly 98% since the original standard prompted the phase-out of leaded gasoline.
Inhaling or ingesting small doses of the metal can damage developing nervous systems, reducing children's IQs and causing learning disabilities and behavior problems. Since the original standard was adopted, numerous scientific studies have shown that children's brains are altered at much lower levels of lead in the bloodstream than previously thought.
Only one place in the U.S. -- Herculaneum, Mo., which has the nation's last remaining lead smelter -- had readings last year that violated the current standard for lead. Under the EPA's new proposal, as many as 23 counties could be thrown out of compliance, which means local officials there would have to adopt new regulations for smelters, foundries, mines and other industries.
None of the counties that would violate the new standard are in California; all are in the Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, Colorado, Utah and Texas. The Salt Lake City area is the farthest west.
Two years ago, the EPA was under fire from environmentalists and some members of Congress for including in its review the option of eliminating the lead standard. A coalition of U.S. battery makers had urged the agency to remove lead from its list of air pollutants.
In a report last November, EPA staffers recommended against that option and told top agency officials that they should set a much more stringent standard to protect children from lowered IQs.
"The overall body of evidence [on lead health effects] clearly calls into question the adequacy of the current standard," the EPA staff report said.
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson agreed, proposing Thursday to set a new standard within the range of 0.10 to 0.30 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air. The current standard is 1.5 micrograms, exceeded only by Missouri's Jefferson County, which recorded the nation's highest reading last year with 1.93, EPA data show.
