Lead dust limit not what the doctor ordered

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 17 proposed tightening its standard for how much lead dust can be left on floors after contractors remove lead paint from homes and childcare centers. While the proposed standard is a significant improvement over the old one, it is twice as high as the level that health experts have called for. Exposure to lead is considered unsafe at any level. Lead causes irreversible neurological damage to children, leading to attention deficit disorders and loss of IQ. Children are most likely to get poisoned by nibbling on chips of old leaded paint, which tastes sweet, and ingesting minute lead paint particles in floor dust. Low-income and minority children are disproportionately affected. While average blood lead levels of children have plummeted in the US since the 1970s, when regulators began to limit the amount of lead in house paint, chronic low-level poisoning continues. At