EPA Puts Mandated Lead-Paint Rules on Hold
The agency is looking at voluntary standards to limit exposure instead. The revelation angers public health advocates and some lawmakers.
By Tom Hamburger
Times Staff Writer
May 10, 2005

WASHINGTON   The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly delayed work on completing required rules to protect children and construction workers from exposure to lead-based paint, exploring instead the possibility of using voluntary standards to govern building renovations and remodeling.

The EPA move, first disclosed in documents provided by an agency whistle-blower, has prompted angry questions from Democrats in Congress, the attorneys general of New York and Illinois, and public health advocates around the country.

One organization is threatening a lawsuit against the agency for failing to issue the rules, as required by law.

On Monday, five members of Congress wrote to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, demanding an explanation for the EPA's "apparent abandonment of regulations required by law to protect children from exposure to lead."

The lawmakers   led by two California Democrats, Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles and Sen. Barbara Boxer   complained that the EPA's action, which was never announced publicly, breached federal toxic-substance laws.

The regulations were to require that only certified contractors, using workers trained in lead-safety practices, be used for remodeling work in buildings constructed before 1978, when the use of lead-based paint for housing was banned.

EPA spokeswoman Eryn Witcher said the agency had not abandoned the possibility of issuing mandatory regulations, and that it was simply exploring alternatives that might be more effective, as well as less costly to industry and the public.