COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS

The Committee on Environmental Hazards has recommended that the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) revise that portion of the American Standard Z66.1/64 pertaining to the lead content of paint downward from the present 1% to "minimum traces" or < 0.06% of the total weight of the contained solid, including pigment, film solids, and driers. This recommendation is based on a study of recently published materials which appeared after the 1% voluntary standard for lead was originally established in 1955 by ANSI. At the same time, in response to the notice in the Federal Register of November 2, 1971 (21 CFR Part 191), the Committee recommended that Federal standards for lead content of paint used on surfaces accessible to young children be reduced to "minimum traces" on < 0.06%, and that paints containing more than this amount of lead be banned as hazardous substances. On review and evaluation of available data in children and adults, an ad hoc committee (B. G. King, Chairman) recently concluded that, for children, the maximum daily permissible intake (DPI) of lead from all sources should not exceed 300 µg Pb/day. If average daily intake is maintained below this level, blood lead concentrations are unlikely to exceed 40 µg Pb/100 gm whole blood. At this level of intake, it is estimated that the amount assimilated by 1- to 3-year-old children could probably be excreted so no net increment in total body lead burden would be anticipated. It is estimated that approximately one half of this 300 µg Pb/day intake would be derived from usual food, water, and air, so intake from all other sources, on the average, should not exceed 150 µg Pb/day.