Toxic Substances

Status of EPA's Efforts to Develop Lead Hazard Standards Gao ID: RCED-94-114 May 16, 1994

Lead poisoning is the most common and devastating environmental disease of young children, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Millions of U.S. children from all geographic areas have harmful lead levels in their blood. A major cause of lead poisoning is lead-based paint. To address this problem, Congress required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop by April 1994 (1) standards defining hazardous lead levels in paint, household dust, and soil; (2) standards for inspecting and removing lead-based paint; and (3) guidelines to avoid creating lead-based paint hazards during renovations and remodeling. Although abatement guidelines for lead-based paint have been developed for public housing, no standards exist for use in private homes and municipal buildings to help identify and remove lead hazards safely and effectively. This report reviews EPA's efforts to develop the standards and guidelines for lead hazards. GAO discusses the status of these efforts as of April 1994 and the additional steps EPA needs to take to issue the standards and guidelines.

GAO found that: (1) EPA missed the legislatively imposed April 1994 deadline to issue standards defining hazardous levels of lead; (2) EPA has completed the technical work for a standard for lead-based paint, but it must complete research on lead-contaminated soil and household dust, develop standards for them, and complete the regulatory review process before it can issue the interrelated standards together; (3) EPA will probably miss its own September 1995 deadline for issuing the standards because of the long regulatory process; (4) EPA plans to issue interim technical guidance on hazardous lead levels in May 1994; (5) EPA efforts to consult with state and local governments and other interested parties have delayed its development of lead inspection and abatement standards, but it expects to issue them by November 1995; (6) EPA issued its renovation and remodeling guidelines on time, but they did not contain procedures for conducting lead abatement activities; (7) the delay in issuing standards could have serious environmental and health consequences because of poor abatement practices; and (8) EPA should promote the wider use of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines for abating lead-based paint in its housing projects.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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