Protecting Americans’ Health Starts with Fixing Our Country’s Lead Problem

Lead poisoning prevention week was last month, providing a moment to reflect on the myriad ways that communities and families are exposed to lead.

Lead released into the air, soil, water, and neighborhoods from nearby polluters requires critical attention and action so that communities can have a healthy start and lifelong protection from lead poisoning from all sources. Right now, however, the EPA is actively working on rules that could weaken lead protections, particularly lead air emissions.

Science has shown that there is no safe level of lead exposure, especially for children. The clock is ticking to prevent yet another generation from having to grow up with the threat of lead poisoning.

It’s time to put health first. We urge everyone who wants a healthy America to join the fight to protect U.S. families from hidden sources of lead – and to make sure every child grows up with clean, safe air. Here are sources many Americans haven’t realized are quietly releasing lead into our communities, and what Earthjustice is doing about it.

Lead from waste combustors

• The EPA has been extremely delayed finalizing a rule to lower the emissions limits for Large Municipal Waste Combustors. Earthjustice has sued on behalf of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and others community groups to compel the EPA to issue a rule reexamining emissions limit, which is required by law.
• As a result, the EPA released a proposed rule in 2024 that set the lead emissions standard much lower than the existing rule. This rule could even stronger to protect communities, since there is no safe level of lead exposure.
• The EPA is required to issue a final rule by December 2025. Earthjustice, along with our clients, emphatically urge the EPA to finalize a strong rule once and for all without delay.

Leaded aviation gas

• Leaded gasoline in motor vehicles was banned nearly 25 years ago. Yet the use of leaded aviation gas, otherwise known as avgas, persists in approximately 170,000 piston-engine aircraft spread across some 20,000 airports nationwide. Emissions from these aircraft are responsible for about 70% of lead released into the atmosphere.
• Over 5 million people, including more than 360,000 children under the age of five, reside near at least one of the airports where piston-engine aircraft operate, according to the EPA. Multiple studies have confirmed that children living in proximity to airports have higher levels of lead in their blood than their peers who live further away.
• A comprehensive review of lead pollution data conducted by Earthjustice has revealed that airports with the highest lead emissions are concentrated in a handful of states, including California, Florida, Arizona, Washington, and Colorado.

Lead from secondary lead smelters

• Communities around the U.S. – from Alabama, to Missouri, to New York, California and beyond – are unnecessarily exposed to levels of lead and other toxic chemicals from secondary lead smelters, also known as battery recyclers.
• Children face the greatest threat of neurodevelopmental harm and cumulative health impacts, including cancer risk linked with metals like arsenic that this type of facility releases alongside lead.
• Yet the EPA has announced a proposal that would not require any lead and toxic chemical pollution reductions at all, instead weakening the clean air standards. The proposal treats lead as if it’s already taken care of by an outdated 2008 rule that the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee has long recognized as “insufficient to protect children’s health.”
• The EPA is treating the Lead National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or NAAQS, as its only indicator of what is needed to protect communities’ health from lead. But the EPA hasn’t updated the NAAQS since 2008. The Lead NAAQS is not protective enough and doesn’t take into account the most current scientific information on harm from lead.
• After over a decade of work to protect children’s health from lead from these and other sources, Earthjustice will keep standing with community members and advocates who testified at a recent EPA public hearing.

While the Trump administration continues to put corporate profits ahead of public health – even while it makes empty “MAHA” promises – Earthjustice and our partners continue to call for the federal government to do its job to protect children’s well-being. When the government fails to follow the law, we go to court to ensure communities have vital safeguards for their families’ health and the environment.