In January, the EPA lowered its lead screening level for soil from 400 ppm to 200 ppm The change means that 25% of U.S. households now have yards with unsafe levels of the toxin Affected homeowners have a couple options when it comes to remediating the problem THURSDAY, June 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The yards of 1 in every 4 U.
S. households have soil lead levels that exceed new federal lead screening levels of 200 parts per million (ppm), a new study finds. “I was shocked at how many households were above the new 200 ppm guideline,” said Gabriel Filippelli , a biochemist at Indiana University who led the new study.
“I assumed it was going to be a more modest number." "The results for the 100 ppm guideline are even worse," he added. The EPA has set a 100 ppm guideline for households with lead exposures thought to be from multiple sources.
About 29 million U.S. households could be contaminated by soil lead levels that exceed the new EPA guidelines.
The price tag for remediating all of those lead-contaminated yards, using "dig-and-dump" soil-removal methods, could exceed $1 trillion, the study authors estimated. Lead is an environmental toxin that in much of the 20th century was ubiquitous in gasoline, paint, plumbing and other products. It's a heavy metal that accumulates in the body and has potentially severe neurological effects, especially for children.
For years, the EPA had set a level of 400 ppm of lead in soil, but in January it lowered that guideline to 200 pp.