National Emergency: Congress Attempts to Address Lead Poisoning
In response to recent studies which show dangerous levels of lead in public drinking water, over 60 members of Congress have signed a letter calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lower the federal standard for lead in drinking water.
Members of Congress want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lower the federal standard for lead in drinking water in an effort to protect the public from dangerous health effects. More than sixty members of Congress signed a letter asking the EPA to lower the threshold for taking action on water contamination. The letter was signed by 59 Democrats and two Republicans.
Currently water systems exceed the lead standard, also known as the action level – when more than 10% of water samples show lead levels above 15 parts per billion. The letter asks the EPA to align with the World Health Organization’s guidelines for lead contamination by reducing the action level to 10 parts per billion.
“There is lead in the water supply…The threshold needs to be lowered so we don’t put children at risk like we’re now putting children at risk,” U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. told USA Today. “This is a health issue in the United States.”
The letter notes that the current lead action level was “developed in 1991 based on the practical feasibility at that time of reducing lead through controlling corrosion.” Lead has been linked to a number of health problems, causing lowered IQ, and behavioral and developmental problems in babies and children. Although the action level is not a “health based standard,” the lawmakers hope that a lowered standard could trigger “public notification and other actions to reduce the public’s exposure to lead drinking water contamination.”
A previous USA Today investigation found lead contamination in nearly 2,000 public water systems across the United States between 2012 and 2015. The USA Today investigation was not the only study to find dangerous amounts of lead in public drinking water. The Free Thought Project recently reported on a study from the Natural Resources Defense Council:
In fact, 5,363 water systems in the U.S. in 2015 violated the federal Lead and Copper Rule — putting around 18 million people at risk of consuming those contaminants — and virtually none of those responsible faced any penalties, much less criminal charges.
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