EPA Set to Abandon 30 Years of Air Quality Control

Lead is one of the most harmful toxins on Earth and is especially hazardous for children. Since 1970, the Clean Air Act has authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set standards for air pollutants that pose a threat to health and the environment.

Lead was among the first pollutants EPA regulated. But, incredibly, the EPA is considering removing lead entirely from the list of pollutants it controls under the Clean Air Act.

Federal standards for lead pollution have been extremely successful in protecting public health, but significant sources of airborne lead pollution remain. For more on the dangers of lead pollution, see the EPA’s own description of lead’s adverse health effects, which includes “delays in physical and mental development, lower IQ levels, shortened attention spans and increased behavioral problems” in young children.

UCS urges you to tell the EPA that it must continue to use the best available science to protect the air we breathe from dangerous lead pollution.