EPA’s scientists, with support from colleagues at HUD and CDC, published an impressive study identifying the nation’s potential lead exposure hotspots that warrant a deeper analysis for targeting lead actions. The map below shows 30,208 census tracts identified as highest potential lead exposure risk locations based on one of five indexes and two statistical methods.
EPA finalized its Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Lead last week, updating its 2013 version with evidence published in the past decade about the potential effects associated with exposure to lead. Based on the new evidence, the agency revised its 2013 findings of the connection between lead and specific harms.
Rhode Island held an impressive second annual Summit to End Childhood Lead Poisoning cosponsored by the state’s Attorney General and Department of Health. I was honored to be able to join about 200 people who participated in person on February 2.
If finalized as proposed, the rule should virtually eliminate the estimated 9.2 million lead service lines (LSLs) from our public water systems with the vast majority replaced by 2037. This would be a major achievement in the effort to reduce children’s and adult’s exposure to lead in drinking water.
FDA is already under pressure to move faster on its action levels for lead, cadmium, and arsenic under the leadership of its new Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, Jim Jones. This court decision, along with the recall of applesauce pouches, should increase that pressure.
As Unleaded Kids was preparing to submit comments by the February 5 deadline, we noticed a critical problem with the EPA proposal that could undermine achievement of the Biden Administration’s goal of eliminating LSLs. The proposal leaves ambiguous whether the mandate to replace LSLs includes lines on private property.
We think the public should know if lead-sheathed telecom cables are strung over their front yards, their neighborhood playgrounds, or their bus stops, or if they are in the streams where they swim or fish.
The guidance, when fully implemented, should have a significant impact on cleanups where there are industrial and commercial sources of lead contamination, past or present.
In an extraordinary move, the House Committee sought to take back $564.2 million in funds appropriated in previous years that HUD had not obligated by executing a grant or contract. This proposed rescission represents almost half of the total funding that Congress appropriated for the grants in the three prior years.
The Wall Street Journal provided an update on its groundbreaking investigation indicating that lead pipes used for telecom cables are releasing lead into the environment. There are more than 66,000 miles of these lead telecom cables hanging from telephone poles or in lakes, rivers, and streams across the United States.
