EPA Reverses Key Lead Abatement Rule: Children at Risk

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Tue, 22 Mar 2005 15:05:06 GMT

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EPA Reverses Key Lead Abatement Rule: Children at Risk

 

 

BUSH GREENWATCH

 

March 22, 2005 | Back Issues

 

EPA Reverses Key Lead Abatement Rule: Children at Risk

 

" There is more than a little irony here. The EPA--the same agency that

took lead out of gasoline--is now weakening any attempt to eliminate

the most important remaining source of lead poisoning: household paint

and dust. "

 

So spoke Dr. Herbert L. Needleman, one of the nation's premiere

experts on the impact of lead poisoning on children. Dr. Needleman

spoke with BushGreenwatch upon learning that the Environmental

Protection Agency has quietly removed the requirement that only

certified contractors using workers trained in lead-safe practices may

do remodeling or renovation in buildings constructed before 1978.

 

According to internal briefings obtained by Public Employees for

Environmental Responsibility (PEER), President Bush's new EPA

Administrator, Stephen Johnson, has scrapped that requirement in favor

of a voluntary approach.[1] Dr. Needleman described the voluntary

approach as " a strategy that has never worked in lead abatement. "

 

An EPA spokesperson said the decision to switch to a voluntary

approach was not made by Administrator Johnson, but would not say who did.

 

Citing EPA's removal of lead from gasoline as " the most important

public health achievement of the past 30 years, " Dr. Needleman said

the one important remaining source is lead in the paint and dust of

older housing. EPA estimates that some 1.4 million children under age

7—the prime developmental years--live in households where they are at

risk of lead exposure.

 

Addressing the damage lead poisoning causes to children's brain

development, Dr. Needleman, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics

at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and other

physicians and lead investigators said that " as pediatricians who have

seen the tragic consequences of lead poisoning close up, we are

outraged at the quiet abandonment of a program that could eliminate

this avoidable epidemic. " [2]

 

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 434,000 U.S. children

under the age of 5 currently have blood-lead levels linked with

serious developmental health consequences. Most of them live in the

inner cities.

 

" The Bush Administration has walked away from the national goal of

eliminating childhood lead poisoning by 2010, " said PEER Executive Jeff Ruch. Ruch said PEER is working to organize a coalition

to press for implementation of the " long-stalled regulations, " and, if

neccessary, take the issue to court.

 

###

 

SOURCES:

[1] PEER press release, Mar. 14, 2005.

[2] Letter to Journalists. (Journalists may contact BushGreenwatch.org

for a copy of the letter.)

 

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