FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2009

CONTACT:
Phillip Dodge
National Center for Healthy Housing
443-539-4168

Patrick MacRoy
Alliance for Healthy Homes
202-347-7610 x14

Healthy Housing Groups Petition EPA to Strengthen Outdated Standards for
Lead-based Paint and Leaded Dust

Washington, DC. (August 10, 2009)—The National Center for Healthy Housing
(NCHH), the Alliance for Healthy Homes, the Sierra Club, and other groups
petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take steps to
more adequately protect children from the dangers of lead-based paint and
leaded dust.

NCHH and the other groups are petitioning EPA to use its authority under
Section 6 of the Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA) to lower the Federal
dust lead and paint lead levels from the current standards and expand the
scope of those standards as required by statute. Specifically, the groups
demand that EPA:

1. Lower floor dust lead hazard standards from 40 micrograms of lead per
square foot of surface area (µg/ft2) to 10 µg/ft2 or less.

2. Lower window sill dust lead hazard standards from 250 µg/ft2 to 100 µg
/ft2 or less.

3. Reduce the allowable amount of lead in paint and coatings in housing,
child-occupied facilities, and public and commercial buildings from 0.5
percent by weight (5,000 parts per million (ppm) to 0.06 percent by weight
(600 ppm).

“Our research suggests that EPA lead dust standards are far too high to be
protective,” stated Rebecca Morley, Executive Director for NCHH. “The
current EPA standards leave more than 30 percent of children at risk of lead
poisoning.”

In a study published in March 2009, NCHH found that the floor dust standard is
four times what it should be to protect at least 95 percent of children in the
United States from having a concentration of lead in their blood above the
current US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) level of concern.

Lead dust generated from old lead paint and contaminated soil is the primary
source of exposure for young children. Since 2001, EPA has set standards for
lead in dust and soil in housing. When homes are tested for lead dust by a
certified risk assessor, inspector, or sampling technician, they must meet
these standards to be considered “safe.”

“EPA’s standards were inadequate when created, and are down right
laughable today. Given what we know about lead’s deleterious impact on a
child’s developing brain, it’s long past time for EPA to update the
standards,” stated Patrick MacRoy, Executive Director for the Alliance for
Healthy Homes. In a 2007 letter to EPA, the EPA Science Advisory Boards’
Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee’s (CASAC) stated that “outdated
residual surface contamination standards (i.e., dust lead cleanup levels of 40
µg/ft2 for floors and 250 µg/ft2 for window sills) are being used that are
insufficiently protective of children’s health, as indicated by recent
epidemiological studies.”

EPA reports that about 250,000 children aged 1 to 5 years have a blood lead
level of 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (µg/dL) or greater
based on a CDC survey conducted from 2001-2004. No safe level of exposure to
lead has ever been established. Lead poisoning of young children results in
cognitive impairment that can never be regained and is associated with
behavioral disorders.

You may read the full petition here.

###