Just a few days ago, I wrote on this blog that I'm in the mood for some good news, and today I'm happy to announce that I have some great news! EPA has just announced that it will follow the advice of its science advisors and will lower the air quality standard for toxic lead by ten-fold. The standard is being reduced from the antiquated 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter, to 0.15. That's great news for all the children in the U.S. It's also long overdue, since the lead standard has not been updated in 30 years.

The devil remains in the some of the details. For example, the standard will be averaged over a 3-month period (rolling average). The EPA science advisors and the public health community advocated for a 1-month averaging period or even shorter. That's because short spurts of lead from polluting factories or smelters might not cause a violation if they're averaged over a 3-month period of lower emissions, but they can still cause a health hazard. That's because the lead doesn't go away, but instead it falls to earth - on playgrounds and in backyards - where children get it on their hands and into their mouths. The battery industry was meeting with the White House as recently as the beginning of October to advocate precisely for this longer averaging period because they knew it would allow these bursts of pollution.

The standard won't come fully into effect until 2017, which is too long. The babies living near these lead polluters shouldn't have to wait until they're 9 years old to be protected from toxic lead. That's too late!  We've already waited 30 years for this new lead standard, and it's crazy to wait almost 10 more years for it to come into effect.

Then there's the little problem of the lead monitoring network. I've complained about this before, but bear with me. As a scientist it burns me up when scientific information vanishes. Yet half the lead air monitors in the U.S. have vanished over the last ten years, and with them the data on what's going on in most communities across the country. EPA must rebuild the air monitoring network, or all of the good standards in the world won't help us, because nobody will be able to enforce them. Their proposal is not sufficient. For example, they propose only one lead monitor in cities with more than 500,000 people, and they don't commit to keeping monitors downwind of the big polluters. Also there are thousands of major lead polluters in the U.S., and EPA is talking about only 236 "new or relocated" monitors. Get with the program guys! How will anyone know if the standard is being met if nobody's monitoring?

So today, I'm congratulating EPA on a job well-done. But I also want them to know that we're watching. If those lead monitors don't start appearing in our communities and at the fencelines downwind of the big polluters, then EPA will be failing our children. Not only is the devil in the details, the proof is also in the pudding.