EPA Tightens Dust-Lead Hazard Standards, Meeting Court Deadline

The Environmental Protection Agency released updated dust-lead hazard standards June 21.

The new rule will reduce the dust-lead hazard standards from 40 micrograms per square foot to 10 micrograms per square foot for floors, and from 250 micrograms per square foot to 100 micrograms per square foot for windowsills.

The final standards are the same as the ones proposed by the EPA last summer. They apply to most pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities, such as day care centers and kindergarten classrooms.

The EPA was ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to revise their ...