AQMD Expands Controls on Lead-Emitting Businesses

Concerned that airborne concentrations of lead could threaten public health, the South Coast Air Quality Management District on Friday imposed new controls on businesses to limit such emissions.

The regulation, approved on a 7-2 vote, is the district’s first attempt to specifically limit lead emissions from stationary sources. Such emissions from automobiles and other vehicles already are regulated.

The vote followed a series of tests late last year that found lead “hot spots” in various areas of the four-county South Coast Air Basin, including the cities of Commerce and Industry. In some instances, lead concentrations were twice as high as the federal standard.

The new rule covers 225 companies and requires them to install or upgrade emission controls by July 1, 1994. Among the businesses covered are smelters, foundries, lead-acid battery makers, recyclers, brass and bronze producers and coating operations using lead-containing paints.

Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties were believed to be meeting state and federal air quality standards for lead since the 1980s, in large part because of the phaseout of lead from gasoline.

But last year, the standards were exceeded in areas downwind from businesses that operate lead smelters.

At high exposure levels--such as those detected last year at the hot spots--lead can cause nervous and reproductive system disorders and impair cognitive abilities. Young children are especially susceptible because their bodies accumulate lead more readily than adults.

People can be exposed to lead in several ways, including ingestion of lead-containing paint chips or drinking water drawn through lead-laden plumbing and the inhalation of airborne emissions from vehicles and factories.

“This is a rule of great significance for protecting public health,” said Jim Jenal, clean-air program director for Citizens for a Better Environment.