Birth Trauma / Medical Malpractice

Date: 10/16/2008 7:30 PM

By DINA CAPPIELLO
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) _ Three decades after removing lead from gasoline, the Environmental Protection Agency is slashing the amount of the toxic metal that will be allowed in the nation’s air by 90 percent.

EPA officials, under a federal court order to set a new standard by midnight Wednesday, said the limit would better protect public health, especially for children. They can inhale lead particles released from smelters, mines and waste incinerators and ingest it after it settles on surfaces.

Exposure to even low levels of lead early in life can affect learning, IQ and memory in children. Lead can cause cardiovascular, blood pressure and kidney problems in adults.

“Our nation’s air is cleaner today than just a generation ago, and last night I built upon this progress by signing the strongest air quality standards for lead in our nation’s history,” the EPA chief, Stephen Johnson, said Thursday. “Thanks to this stronger standard, EPA will protect my children from remaining sources of airborne lead.”

The new limit, 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter, is the first update since 1978, when the government helped phase out leaded gasoline. It is 10 times lower than the old standard, 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter.

The EPA estimates that 18 counties in a dozen states will violate the new standard. That means state and local governments must find ways to further reduce lead emissions.

The new limit is in the lower end of a range recommended in May by the agency’s independent scientific advisory panel. By contrast, the Bush administration did not follow its own staff’s advice or its science advisers when it set health standards for smog and soot that were less stringent than recommendations.

The EPA also said it would require lead to be measured in 101 cities and near sources that release at least 1 ton of lead per year.

A representative for the Association of Battery Recyclers said the new standard would be difficult to meet. Several members of the group, which represents 14 facilities that recycle lead from car batteries, met two weeks ago with White House and EPA officials to seek a less stringent standard.

“We have put in the best controls and we are going to still have compliance problems,” said Robert Steinwurtzel, a lawyer for the group. “We explained to them our concerns that if the standard was promulgated at lower end of EPA’s range it would threaten viability of industry.”

Environmentalists hailed the move but said the agency could have done more to monitor emissions and ensure the standard is met.

“We commend EPA for taking a giant step in the right direction, but they need to greatly expand the lead monitoring network if they hope to enforce this standard,” said Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the Natural Resource Defense Council.

The EPA will designate areas that fail to meet the new standard by October 2011. Based on air quality data from collected from 2005-2007, 18 counties in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas would fail to meet the standard.

The EPA said the cost of the reductions would be between $150 million to $2.8 billion, but the standard would produce economic benefits of $3.7 billion to $6.9 billion. In calculating the benefits, the agency assumed that children would be smarter and earn more money as a result of less lead in the air.

The government was under a court order to review the standard after a 2004 lawsuit by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment on behalf of two former residents of Herculaneum, Mo., the home of the last lead smelter in the U.S. The smelter repeatedly has violated the older health standard for lead in recent years. Blood taken from children in the area in 2002 showed elevated concentrations of the toxic metal.

The Doe Run Co., which operates the Herculaneum smelter, said the facility is now in compliance with the current standard. Dan Vornberg, the company’s vice president for environmental affairs, said the new standard “will have a significant impact on our operations” and will require exploring options such as new technologies and process adjustments.

The suit charged that the EPA had failed to review the lead standard every five years as law requires. Since 1990, more than 6,000 studies have examined the effects of lead on health and the environment, according to the agency.

“They still have to enforce it,” said Kathleen Logan Smith, executive director of the coalition. “But it is there. It is a start.”

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On the Net:

EPA lead site: www.epa.gov/air/lead

Doe Run. Co.: http://www.doerun.com/

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

www.lead-info.com