Yes, the EPA and the broad authority granted to EPA “Administrators” that allowed it to declare carbon dioxide an environmental pollutant yet encourages you to fill your home with neurotoxin mercury vapor filled CFL lamps through its energy Star division, is on its game again regarding 30 year old lead paint risks, both real and imagined.
We all know ingested lead paint or lead paint dust is a health hazard to young children which is why it has not been used in homes for over 30 years. Notwithstanding the fact that minimum threshold elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) as a % of children under 6 years of age as reported by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) DECREASED by almost 90% (about 8% in 1997 (1,776,593) to about 1% in 2007 (248,844)) without additional EPA interference, the EPA was still compelled to write this new rule.
The CDC has not publicly posted EBLL results past 2007 but if you perform an exponential regression analysis on the CDC data from the 10 years 1997 to 2007 (which I did), the elevated blood lead levels of children under 6 years of age projects out to be about 0.5% of children aged 5 and below in 2010, or roughly 130,000 children out of a total child population under 6 years of about 25,000,000.
So let’s be clear. Now that the heavy lifting of 30 years reducing minimum threshold elevated blood lead levels in children under 6 has resulted in a risk level of about 0.5% in 2010 (when it was as high as almost 8% in 1997), the EPA rolls out a major lead paint rule so that it has the most cost to consumers and contractors alike, with the least amount of benefit. That’s the EPA.
Let’s take a look at this new rule.
