The Environmental Protection Agency announced stronger standards for identifying and cleaning up lead paint in homes and child care facilities built before 1978.
The new rule now considers any reportable level of lead paint as hazardous. The new EPA rule significantly reduces the amount of lead that can remain in the dust on floors, window sills and window troughs.
The new rule reduces the standard for floors from 10 micrograms per square foot to five; 100 micrograms per square foot to 40 for window sills; and 400 micrograms per square foot to 100 for window troughs.
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The EPA says that despite a 1978 ban on using lead paint, an estimated 31 million homes still contain lead-based paint. Among them, 3.8 million are home to at least one child under age 6.
"Lead dust commonly results when lead-based paint deteriorates or is disturbed. Due to normal behaviors such as crawling and hand-to-mouth activities, young children are particularly at risk of higher exposure to ingesting this lead-containing dust," the EPA said.
The new rule means that government entities at the federal, state and local levels could require lead paint abatement if a hazard is identified. Homeowners generally would be responsible for the cleanup. For homes funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, landlords or housing authorities could be required to pay for the abatement.
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To assist homeowners and communities, HUD is providing $420 million in awards to help remove lead hazards from properties.
“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,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are no safe levels of lead. Childhood lead exposure can cause damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems, the CDC said.