What does the federal government recommend to protect people from lead paint poisoning?

The federal government develops regulations and recommendations for substances, such as lead paint, to protect public health. Regulations can be enforced by the law. Federal agencies that develop regulations for toxic substances include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Recommendations provide valuable guidelines to protect public health but cannot be enforced by law. Federal organizations that develop recommendations for toxic substances include the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Regulations and recommendations can be expressed in not-to-exceed levels in air, water, soil, or food that are usually based on levels that affect animals; then they are adjusted to help protect people. Sometimes these not-to-exceed levels differ among federal organizations because of different exposure times (an 8-hour workday or a 24-hour day), the use of different animal studies, or other factors.

Recommendations and regulations are also periodically updated as more information becomes available. For the most current information, check with the federal agency or organization that provides it. Some regulations and recommendations for lead include the following: CDC recommends that states develop a plan to find children who may be exposed to lead and have their blood tested for lead. They make basic recommendations for states to follow. These include testing children at ages 1 and 2.

Children who are 3 to 6 years old should be tested if they have never been tested for lead before and they receive services from public assistance programs for the poor such as Medicaid or the Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC); if they live in a building or frequently visit a house built before 1950; if they visit a home (house or apartment) built before 1978 that has been recently remodeled; or if they have a brother, sister, or playmate who has had lead poisoning.

CDC considers children to have an elevated level of lead if the amount of lead in the blood is at least 10 µg/dL. Medical evaluation and environmental investigation and remediation should be done for all children with blood lead levels equal or greater than 20 µg/dL. Medical treatment may be necessary in children if the lead concentration in blood is higher than 45 µg/dL.

EPA requires that the concentration of lead in air that the public breathes be no higher than 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) averaged over 3 months. EPA regulations no longer allow lead in gasoline. The Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990 banned the sale of leaded gasoline as of December 31, 1995.

EPA regulations also limit lead in drinking water to 0.015 milligrams per liter (mg/L). The 1988 Lead Contamination Control Act requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), EPA, and the states to recall or repair water coolers containing lead. This law also requires new coolers to be lead-free. In addition, drinking water in schools must be tested for lead, and the sources of lead in this water must be removed. To help protect small children, CPSC requires that the concentration of lead in most paints available through normal consumer channels be not more than 0.06%. The Federal Hazardous Substance Act (FHSA) bans children's products containing hazardous amounts of lead. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) develops recommendations and regulations to prevent exposure to lead. HUD requires that federally funded housing and renovations, public housing, and Indian housing be tested for lead-based paint hazards and that such hazards be fixed by covering the paint or removing it.

When determining whether lead-based paint applied to interior or exterior painted surfaces of dwellings should be removed, the standard used by EPA and HUD is that paint with a lead concentration equal to or greater than 1.0 milligram per square centimeter (mg/cm²) of surface area should be removed or otherwise treated. HUD is carrying out demonstration projects to determine the best ways of covering or removing lead-based paint in housing.

EPA has developed standards for lead paint hazards, lead in dust, and lead in soil. To educate parents, homeowners, and tenants about lead hazards, lead poisoning prevention in the home, and the lead abatement process, EPA has published several general information pamphlets. Copies of these pamphlets can be obtained from the National Lead Information Center or from various Internet sites, including http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/lead.

OSHA regulations limit the concentration of lead in workroom air to 50 µg/m³ for an 8-hour workday. If a worker has a blood lead level of 50 µg/dL, then OSHA requires that worker be removed from the workroom where lead exposure is occurring.

FDA includes lead on its list of poisonous and deleterious substances. FDA considers foods packaged in cans containing lead solders to be adulterated. Tin-coated lead foil has been used as a covering applied over the cork and neck areas of wine bottles for decorative purposes and to prevent insect infestations. Because it can be reasonably expected that lead could become a component of the wine, the use of these capsules is also a violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. FDA has reviewed several direct human food ingredients and has determined them to be "generally recognized as safe" when used in accordance with current good manufacturing practices. Some of these ingredients contain allowable lead concentrations that range from 0.1 to 10 parts per million (ppm).

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see also:

Your Body Lead Paint Poisoning: Lawsuit information from a lawyer.
Lead paint poisoning data from a lawyer: Why a lawsuit protects kids.

Lead Paint Risk How much do you know about the risks of lead paint?
Find out how to reduce the risk of lead paint poisoning

News Warnings Lead Paint Poisoning: News warnings about lead
Lead poisoning? Information overview w/recent news warnings about lead