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Air Quality Criteria For Lead (Final Report, 2006)
Citation:
U.S. EPA. Air Quality Criteria For Lead (Final Report, 2006). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-05/144aF-bF, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
EPA announces the availability of EPA's final document, Air Quality Criteria for Lead, as described in a September 29, 2006 Federal Register Notice.
Description:
National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are promulgated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to meet requirements set forth in Sections 108 and 109 of the U.S. Clean Air Act. Those two Clean Air Act sections require the EPA Administrator (1) to list widespread air pollutants that reasonably may be expected to endanger public health or welfare; (2) to issue air quality criteria for them that assess the latest available scientific information on nature and effects of ambient exposure to them; (3) to set primary NAAQS to protect human health with adequate margin of safety and to set secondary NAAQS to protect against welfare effects (e.g., effects on vegetation, ecosystems, visibility, climate, manmade materials, etc); and (5) to periodically review and revise, as appropriate, the criteria and NAAQS for a given listed pollutant or class of pollutants.
Lead (Pb) was first listed in the mid-1970’s as a criteria air pollutant requiring NAAQS regulation. The scientific information pertinent to Pb NAAQS development available at the time was assessed in the EPA document Air Quality Criteria for Lead; published in 1977. Based on the scientific assessments contained in that 1977 lead air quality criteria document (1977 Lead AQCD), EPA established a 1.5 µg/m3 (maximum quarterly calendar average) Pb NAAQS in 1978.
To meet Clean Air Act requirements noted above for periodic review of criteria and NAAQS, new scientific information published since the 1977 Lead AQCD was later assessed in a revised Lead AQCD and Addendum published in 1986 and in a Supplement to the 1986 AQCD/Addendum published by EPA in 1990. A 1990 Lead Staff Paper, prepared by EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OPQPS), drew upon key findings and conclusions from the 1986 Lead AQCD/Addendum and 1990 Supplement (as well as other OAQPS sponsored lead exposure/risk analyses) in posing options for the EPA Administrator to consider with regard to possible revision of the Pb NAAQS. However, EPA chose not to revise the Pb NAAQS at that time. Rather, as part of implementing a broad 1991 U.S. EPA Strategy for Reducing Lead Exposure, the Agency focused primarily on regulatory and remedial clean-up efforts to reduce Pb exposure from a variety of non-air sources that posed more extensive public health risks, as well as other actions to reduce air emissions.
URLs/Downloads:
Air Quality Criteria for Lead, Vol. I (PDF, 1251 pp, 10795 KB, about PDF)Air Quality Criteria for Lead, Vol. II - Annex 4 (PDF, 99 pp, 9262 KB, about PDF)
Air Quality Criteria for Lead, Vol. II - Annex 5 (PDF, 278 pp, 9930 KB, about PDF)
Air Quality Criteria for Lead, Vol. II - Annex 6 (PDF, 337 pp, 1373 KB, about PDF)
Air Quality Criteria for Lead, Vol. II - Annex 7 (PDF, 282 pp, 2098 KB, about PDF)
FR Notice: Sep 29, 2006
