EPA Acknowledges Possibility of Dropping Health Standards for Lead Air Pollution

Date: December 8, 2006

Source: News Room

A preliminary staff review released by the Environmental Protection Agency this week acknowledged the possibility of dropping the health standards for lead air pollution. Battery makers, lead smelters, refiners all have lobbied the administration to do away with the Clean Air Act limits. The EPA is required to review every five years to make sure the health limits are protective enough, but it has repeatedly missed the deadlines set under the Clean Air Act. The EPA says that concentrations of lead in the air have dropped by more than 90 percent in the past 2 1/2 decades. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, called on the agency to "renounce this dangerous proposal immediately," because lead, a highly toxic element, can cause severe nerve damage, especially in children.

The US Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov, www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs
Battery Council: www.batterycouncil.org.

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