UNITED STATES
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
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SiSEnvironmental News
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FOR RELEASE AFTER 10:30 A.M. MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 19 77
NATIONAL LEAD AIR POLLUTION STANDARD PROPOSED BY EPA
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Douglas M.
Costle today announced proposal of an ambient air quality
standard to protect the public health from exposure to air-
borne lead, a pollutant that may, even at low levels of
exposure, harm human nervous and blood-forming systems.
"This proposed standard," Costle said, "represents an
initial judgment on a level of lead in the air which is safe
for long periods of exposure. Our health effects informa-
tion indicates a need for increasing concern about low level,
long-term exposures to lead, particularly among children."
EPA has proposed the lead standard at a level based on
the need to protect young children (age 1-5 years), the most
critically sensitive population. Lead health effects occur
at lower thresholds in children than in adults, and children
have a greater risk of exposure to non-food material contain-
ing lead, such as dust and soil, as the result of playing
in contaminated areas. EPA feels that, if the standard pro-
tects this age group, it will guard the rest of the population.
"The proposed standard is precautionary," Costle said,
"and we are mindful that there are still key aspects of
the scientific knowledge about lead which are unknown or
controversial. Frankly, the decision about what level to
propose raises some difficult issues. We are publishing the
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proposal with a lengthened period for receiving public comments,
because we want the maximum possible public discussion."
"Blood lead levels for most children in this country are-
higher than they should be," Costie said, "and because of the
multiple sources of lead this standard by itself will not
solve the lead problem. We must also rely on other regulatory
authorities within EPA, including water, toxic substances and
solid waste. We are also coordinating this proposal with
the Interagency Regulatory Liaison Group, composed of EPA,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Food and
Drug Administration, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission."
The proposed national standard for airborne lead, which
appears in the Federal Register of December 14, is 1.5 micro-
grams of lead per cubic meter of air, figured on a monthly
average. Following issuance of a final standard by EPA,
scheduled for June 197 8, States must develop plans for EPA
approval which demonstrate how they will attain the lead
standard by 1982, and maintain it thereafter.
EPA has examined available information to assess the
economic impact of technological controls necessary to
reduce air emissions of lead from industrial facilities.
For primary copper smelters, primary and secondary lead
smelters, and battery plants, attaining the standard may
require control of fugitive lead emissions, i.e., those emis-
sions escaping from process steps, other than emissions from
smoke stacks. Fugitive emissions are difficult to estimate,
measure, or control, and it is also difficult to predict their
impact on air quality near the facility. From the information
available to the Agency, it does appear that non-ferrous smelters
may have difficulty in achieving the proposed standard in
areas immediately adjacent to the smelter complex. While the
possible impact of the standard on these facilities is of great
concern to EPA, and will be the subject of continuing studies
and analysis, the Clean Air Act does not permit EPA to con-
sider factors other than health in determining the level of
the standard. EPA estimates that the overall cost of
installing the necessary controls will be about 600 million
dollars.
EPA's initial approach to controlling lead in 1971 was
to limit auto lead emissions, the principal source of lead
air emissions. EPA issued regulations in 1973 requiring the
general availability of at least one grade of lead-free
gasoline at most service stations, and the phasing-down of
lead in all grades of gasoline by October 1979.
In 1975, the Natural Resources Defense Council and
others brought suit against EPA in U.S. District Court,
Southern District, New York, to control lead as a national
ambient air quality standard under Section 109 of the Clean
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Air Act. As a result of Court action on this suit, EPA in
March 1976 listed lead as a pollutant for which standards
would be developed.
Lead is emitted to the atmosphere by vehicles burning
leaded fuel and by certain industries. In 1975, about 142
thousand metric tons of lead were emitted nationwide. Com-
bustion of gasoline accounted for 90 percent of those emissions;
combustion of crankcase oil, solid waste, oil and coal accounted
for an additional five percent; and the remaining five percent
came from 19 industrial categories. As a result of EPA's
phasedown of lead in gasoline, lead emissions from gasoline
combustion are expected to decrease about 60 percent from
current levels by 1985. Although this is a relatively large
decline, gasoline combustion emissions are still projected
to be the greatest national emission source of lead in 1985.
Lead enters the human body principally through ingestion
and inhalation, with subsequent absorption into the blood
stream and distribution to all body tissues. Exposure to
airborne lead can occur directly by inhalation, or indirectly
by ingestion of lead-contaminated food, water, or non-food
materials including dust and soil. Lead accumulates in the
human body throughout life, to a large ^xtert immobilized
in bone. A significant amount of body leacKis in the blood
and soft tissues.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that exposure to
lead adversely affects human health. Lead has its most
pronounced effects on the hematopoietic (blood-forming),
nervous and renal (kidney) systems, but may also harm the
reproductive, endocrine, hepatic, cardiovascular, immuno-
logic and gastrointestinal systems. Exposure to high levels
of lead may have severe and sometimes fatal consequences
such as brain disease, colic, palsy, and anemia.
There are multiple sources of lead exposure besides
air pollution. Lead is found in paint, inks, water supply
and distribution systems, pesticides, and fresh and processed
food.
Besides the ambient air standard proposed today, EPA
has taken other actions to control lead in the environment.
In 1975, EPA set national drinking water standards for
lead, and by 197£ will develop industrial water pollution
rules for this pollutant. The Agency has also issued regu-
lations controlling lead arsenate pesticides and requir-
ing safe disposal procedures for all(lead-containing pesti-
cides. Also, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
of 1976 authorizes EPA to regulate the recycling and disposal
of used crankcase oil# lead acid batteries, and other wastes
containing lead.
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Other EPA regulations for control of air emissions of
sulfur dioxide and particulate matter require pollution control
technology that also reduces lead emissions from industrial
facilities.
Other Federal agencies have also taken resources to
control lead. In 1975, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration proposed regulations to limit occupational
exposure to lead to 100 ug Pb/m3 (micrograms lead per cubic
meter of air), 8-hour time weighted average. Other Federal
agencies which have or will be taking actions concerning lead
are the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Con-
sumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administra-
tion, and the Center for Disease Control.
Four States currently have lead air quality standards
of their own: California, Pennsylvania, Montana and Oregon.
Accompanying today's proposed standard in the Federal
Register are proposed regulations setting forth require-
ments for States to follow in developing, adopting and
submitting acceptable implementation plans for meeting EPA's
standard. These plans have to be submitted for EPA approval
within nine months after the final standard is issued in
June 1978. States must therefore submit their plans by
March 1979, and eventually meet the ambient standard by 1982.
The other pollutants for which EPA has ambient standards
in effect (since April 30, 1971) are particulate matter,
sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide
and photochemical oxidants.
Public comment on all aspects of the proposed standard
should be submitted in duplicate to: Mr. Joseph Padgett,
Director, Strategies and Air Standards Division, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina 27711. The deadline for submission of comments
is February 17, 1978. A public hearing will be held on
the proposed standard at EPA Headquarters, 401 M Street, SW.,
Washington, D.C. on January 17, 1978. The criteria on
which this proposed standard is based is contained in the
document "Air Quality Criteria for Lead." For further
information on the proposed standard, public hearing, and
criteria document, write the above address, or phone (919)
.*41-5204.
A docket (Number OAQPS-77-1) containing information
used by EPA in development of the proposed standard is avail-
able for public inspection at EPA's Public Information
Reference Unit, Room 2922, 401 M Street, SW. , Wakmn&ton., . , ;u,aripc
d.c., phone (202) 755-2808.	Headquarter ar»o.
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