EDF Health

Selected tag(s): Lead and Copper Rule

Lead Pipes: EDF comments on EPA’s proposed Lead & Copper Rule Improvements

By Roya Alkafaji / Published: February 7, 2024

Graphic of lead service lines connected to homes

What’s New

Earlier this week EDF submitted comments that urged EPA to finalize the strongest possible improvements to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCRI). An estimated 9.2 million lead service lines (LSLs) are still connected to homes and buildings throughout the country. EPA’s proposal is a critical step to protect Americans from the harmful of effects of lead in drinking water by requiring LSL replacement.

Why It Matters

The EPA’s proposal, if finalized, would protect public health and yield huge socioeconomic benefits. This rule presents a critical opportunity to fix this longstanding environmental injustice. Read More »

Posted in Drinking water, Environmental justice, Lead, Public health / Also tagged , , , , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

New Study Highlights Lead in Water at Child Care Facilities and Holes in Current EPA Rule

By Lindsay McCormick / Published: October 27, 2021

Lindsay McCormick, Program Manager

This month, EDF published an article along with collaborators from Auburn University and Mississippi State University, based on a pilot we conducted in partnership with local organizations[1] to comprehensively test and remediate lead in water at 11 child care facilities in Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi and Ohio.

The study found that while over 75% of first draw samples contained lead levels under the 1 ppb level recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 10 of 11 child care facilities produced at least one sample above that level. We fixed problems at the facilities, including replacing 26 contaminated fixtures and two lead service lines. Read More »

Posted in Lead / Also tagged | Comments are closed

EDF’s assessment of a health-based benchmark for lead in drinking water

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: February 28, 2017

Tom Neltner, J.D., is Chemicals Policy Director

Health professionals periodically ask me how they should advise parents who ask about what constitutes a dangerous level of lead in drinking water. They want a number similar to the one developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for lead in dust and soil (which is the primary source of elevated blood lead levels in young children). I usually remind them that EPA’s 15 parts per billion (ppb) Lead Action Level is based on the effectiveness of treating water to reduce corrosion and the leaching of lead from plumbing; it has no relation to health. Then I tell them that EPA is working on one and to hold tight. Admittedly, that is not very satisfying to someone who must answer a parent’s questions about the results of water tests today.

On January 12, EPA released a draft report for public comment and external peer review that provides scientific models that the agency may use to develop potential health-based benchmarks for lead in drinking water. In a blog last month, I explained the various approaches and options for benchmarks that ranged from 3 to 56 ppb. In another blog, I described how EPA’s analysis provides insight into the amounts of lead in food, water, air, dust and soil to which infants and toddlers may be exposed. In this blog, I provide our assessment of numbers that health professionals could use to answer a parent’s questions. Because the numbers are only a start, I also suggest how health professionals can use the health-based benchmarks to help parents take action when water tests exceed those levels.

EDF’s read on an appropriate health-based benchmark for individual action on lead in drinking water

When it comes to children’s brain development, EDF is cautious. So we drew from the agency’s estimates calculated by its model to result in a 1% increase in the probability of a child having a blood lead level (BLL) of 3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (µg/dL).

EDF’s assessment of a health-based benchmark for individual action on lead in drinking water
Age of child in home and type of exposure Houses built before 1950¹ Houses built 1950 to 1978² Tests show no lead in dust or soil³
Formula-fed infant 3.8 ppb 8.2 ppb 11.3 ppb
Other children 7 years or younger 5.9 ppb 12.9 ppb 27.3 ppb

Read More »

Posted in Drinking water, Emerging science, Lead / Also tagged , , , , | Comments are closed

With draft report, EPA takes major step to help communities assess risks from lead in drinking water

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: January 13, 2017

Tom Neltner, J.D., is Chemicals Policy Director

Communities around the country are testing their water for lead. But when they get the results, parents, public health officials, housing agencies and school officials have little guidance about what the number means and what actions to take or priorities to set. For lead in dust and soil in homes, child-care and schools, they have health-based numbers that serve as benchmarks for assessing risk. There is no such benchmark for drinking water. As a result, many are using the “Lead Action Level” of 15 parts per billion (ppb) as a surrogate. Yet, this level is based on the effectiveness of corrosion control; it has no relation to the associated health risks of lead exposure.

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) helped fill the void by releasing a draft report that provides three different approaches to setting a scientifically-robust “health-based benchmark” for lead in drinking water. The agency is seeking public comment on the draft and will convene a panel of scientific experts to consider each of the approaches.

The report is a critical step in implementing the recommendations of the agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) which called for this type of health-based benchmark as part of an overhaul of the Lead and Copper Rule. The agency went a step further and provides alternatives to consider. We applaud EPA for its action and its rigorous, scientific analysis.

Accounting for the various models and assumptions, EPA developed a range of potential health-based benchmarks that range from 3 to 56 ppb of lead in water that people actually drink. However, you cannot readily compare these values to the typical water testing results reported by utilities or schools. Those tests are based on the first draw of water that has been sitting in the faucet and plumbing overnight and do not necessarily reflect what people drink over the course of a day. Later samples would likely be lower but could be higher if the building has a lead service line, especially if the line has been disturbed. Read More »

Posted in Drinking water, General interest, Health science, Lead, Regulation / Also tagged , , , , | Read 2 Responses

Some good news in Washington, but much more work to do on lead

By Jack Pratt / Published: December 12, 2016

Jack Pratt is Chemicals Campaign Director

You may have missed it, but early Saturday morning there was some good news in Washington. After a long delay, Congress finally passed funding to help address the public health disaster in Flint, Michigan. This is good news, but much work remains to be done, in Flint and around the country.

Read More »

Posted in Drinking water, Lead / Also tagged , , | Comments are closed

Washington Post looks at the long and painful history of Lead in Drinking Water rule

By Sarah Vogel / Published: May 9, 2016

Sarah Vogel, Ph.D., is Vice-President for Health.

If you missed last week’s Washington Post piece, “The EPA’s lead-in-water rule has been faulted for decades. Will Flint hasten a change?”  we suggest you go back and take a look. Post reporter Brady Dennis takes us back to the beginning to figure out how a federal rule intended to help ensure safe drinking water nationwide faltered, and why it has taken so long to fix.

In 1991, EPA issued the Lead and Copper Rule to reduce lead in drinking water that primarily relied on corrosion control. But initial progress stalled and the rules shortcomings became clear. As EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy explained at a recent hearing, the rule “needs to be strengthened.” Critics claim the outdated rule has become too easy to evade and too hard to enforce.

EPA now is developing an overhaul of the rule. Given the complexity and scope of the challenge, as my colleague Tom Neltner points out, the stakes are high and the agency needs to get it right.

Neltner should know. He served on the expert panel advising the EPA National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) which looked at the rule’s flaws. For example, EPA’s original “lead action level” was based on whether or not corrosion control was working and not on the health risk. The group Neltner served on recommended establishing a new health-based “household action level” that will empower people to make informed choices about how to manage their risk to lead hazards in water. In February 2015, EPA agreed to develop an estimated level for the panel to consider. Given the consumer’s need for the number as a result of Flint, EDF has urged that the agency move quickly to release the household action level.

EPA has indicated the lead rule update will be issued in 2017. But with bipartisan Hill support and a new Presidential Administration on the horizon, many are anxious to see it move faster.

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