The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced new proposed rules for lead paint in an effort to prevent children from being exposed to toxic materials.
The agency said the new standards, which would apply to all buildings constructed prior to 1978, will reduce lead exposure for between 250,000 and 500,000 children under age 6 annually.
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“This proposal to safely remove lead paint along with our other efforts to deliver clean drinking water and replace lead pipes will go a long way toward protecting the health of our next generation of leaders,” EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said in a statement.
The proposed rules seek to lower the levels of lead dust used to identify and clean up lead paint under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
The proposed rules would almost completely eliminate lead dust, bringing the contaminant down to the lowest level achievable with modern removal efforts, according to the administration.
The federal government first banned the sale of lead-based paint in 1978. Still, an estimated 31 million older homes still contain lead paint.
Certain federal rules also allowed for low levels of lead exposure in buildings constructed prior to the ban, officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its definition of lead poisoning for young children in 2021 to reflect the consensus that even exposure to microscopic amounts of lead can be dangerous — putting them at risk for brain damage, stunted growth, or developmental problems.
The Government Accountability Office estimated in 2019 that 15 million U.S. students are enrolled in school districts that still contain lead-based paint — a number officials said underscores the urgent need to eradicate exposure.
“There is no safe level of lead,” the American Association of Pediatrics noted on its website. Around age 2, the same time that risk for lead exposure often peaks, it noted that lead contamination can interfere with critical central nervous system development, including "region-specific reductions in the brain's volumes and alterations on its microstructure."
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The risks go beyond neurodevelopment, according to the AAP.
Lead also interferes with the body's ability to use vitamin D and iron, and exposure in childhood can also harm the kidneys, leading to a significantly greater risk of becoming hypertensive later in life.