New EPA Standards Target Lead Paint Dust in Homes, Child Care Facilities

The Environmental Protection Agency in Washington on June 10, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Any lead paint dust detected in certain parts of child care facilities and houses from before 1978 will be considered hazardous, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated on Oct. 24.

The EPA’s final rule states that “any reportable level” of lead dust on floors, window sills, or window troughs will be deemed hazardous.

Federal officials banned lead-based paint in residential homes in 1978, but officials estimate that about 31 million homes built before that year still contain lead-based paint. Almost 4 million of these homes house one or more children younger than age 6.

Lead-contaminated dust can cause elevated lead levels in blood. Lead is a neurotoxin that can damage various parts of the body, including the brain.

Under the stricter standards, people who own older homes and child care facilities that care for children ages 6 and younger could be responsible for paying to clean up lead dust. Lead dust testing can be triggered by a child having elevated levels of lead in the blood or requirements for receiving federal funding, among other reasons.

After the cleanup, small amounts of lead can remain in the dust. The EPA lowered those amounts to “the lowest levels that can be reliably and quickly measured in laboratories.”

The new levels are five micrograms per square foot for floors, 40 micrograms per square foot for window sills, and 100 micrograms per square foot for window troughs.

The rule, first proposed in 2023, applies nationwide. New York City imposed the same post-cleanup standards in 2021.

“Too often our children, the most vulnerable residents of already overburdened communities, are the most profoundly impacted by the toxic legacy of lead-based paint,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement. “EPA is getting the lead out of communities nationwide. These protections will reduce lead exposures for hundreds of thousands of people every year, helping kids grow up healthy and meet their full potential.”

The EPA estimates that the rule will reduce lead exposure for nearly 1.2 million people each year, including as many as 326,000 young children.

WE ACT for Environmental Justice was among the groups that expressed support for the change.

“We can all breathe a little easier now that the EPA has significantly lowered its dust lead standard to protect children,” Peggy Shepard, the group’s co-founder and executive director, said in a statement released by the EPA.

Cindy Lehnhoff, director of the National Child Care Association, whose members provide care to young children, told The Epoch Times in an email that a series of required safety changes, with no financial assistance provided, has increased costs for child care facilities.

“We are currently experiencing a shortage of licensed child care centers and homes, particularly in rural areas. Unfortunately, the EPA’s proposed changes to tighten lead dust standards could lead to further closures of centers operating in older facilities, especially in these underserved markets,” she said. “In order to avoid this, there needs to be funds provided to ensure this standard is met.”

Nicole Upano, assistant vice president of housing policy and regulatory affairs for the National Apartment Association, told The Epoch Times via email that the group wants to reduce exposure to lead but that the EPA’s rule, as written, “places the sole onus on the nation’s housing providers to remediate dust levels to absolute zero—an impossible task.”