EPA Finalizes Rule Allowing Less Lead in Dust in Older Homes

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized standards to allow less lead in paint dust in older buildings as part of an effort to protect kids from exposure to lead. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that no level of lead exposure is considered safe for children and that about half a million children in the United States have levels of lead in their blood high enough to qualify as lead poisoning. Lead dust from chipped paint is the No. 1 source of children's exposure to lead. The new rule requires public housing and facilities built before 1978 that are occupied by children, like schools and daycare facilities, to test for lower levels of lead on window sills, floors, and other surfaces and take steps to reduce levels if they're above the limit. The new rule will allow a fourth of the amount of dust considered acceptable on floors under the previous rule and a tenth of the amount previously allowed on window sills. The EPA has taken more than 20 years to update the lead dust rule.