The Environmental Protection Agency wanted another six year to update its lead - based paint rules . On Wednesday , a federal appealingness court was like : Nah . The court render the way just 90 days to propose a rule and just a yr to finalise it .
Thiscourt decree , from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals , comes nearly 10 years after a community - led petition asked the EPA to update these measure . GroupsincludingNew Jersey Citizen Action and California Communities Against Toxics requested back in 2009 that the Union agency update therulesbecause they have n’t been changed at all since 2001 .
Since then , more researchon the metal ’s grave health impacts has come out . Thecurrent standardsfor lead in blusher allow virtually 10 times more lead than what the Consumer Product Safety Commissionrecommends . The EPA ’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee alsofoundthese dominate “ insufficiently protective of fry ’s wellness ” in 2007 .
Lead ’s shock on child are unnerving AF : The Centers for Disease Control and Preventiondeemno blood lead levels good for children . Blood lead levels low than 10 microgram per deciliter have been associated with hold up puberty and decreased cognitive performance among children . Even at levels low than 5 micrograms per deciliter , researchers have observed lower IQ account and an increase in behavioral problems , according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences .
Lead - based paint wasbannedin 1978 , but the production still live in homes — especially those build before then . In 2011 , the Department of Housing and Urban Developmentestimated37.1 million menage have lead - based paint somewhere in them . Low - income households were more potential to arrest this toxic rouge .
The court order is essay for the EPA to lower the satisfactory lead standards so that less is legally permitted in tike ’s homes . That way , if a home is found to have lead paint that does n’t meet the agency ’s standard , something can be done . A renter can take for a property proprietor accountable , or the EPA canfinecompanies that do n’t take in out for their employees . Either way , citizenry ’s health is better protect .
The water crisis in Flint , MI , painted a grim realism many communities of color face . Lead does n’t just hide in a city ’s water supply , though . It cover in unmingled raft on multitude ’s paries .
The EPAdeclined to tellThe New York Times whether it ’d follow this order with an solicitation or endeavor to take it to the Supreme Court . The motor lodge , however , was willing to take literally a “ drastic therapeutic ” by cede a “ judicial writ of mandumus,”per the decree , which is to be used only in “ extraordinary state of affairs ” that demand immediate action when there are no other options depart and the government is fail to get together its duty .
With 17 years of inaction , the latter is all too true .
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