Risks to children from exposure to lead in air during remedial or removal activities at Superfund sites: A case study of the RSR lead smelter Superfund site.

Superfund sites that are contaminated with lead and undergoing remedial action generate lead-enriched dust that can be released into the air. Activities that can emit lead -enriched dust include demolition of lead smelter buildings, stacks, and baghouses; on-site traffic of heavy construction vehicles; and excavation of soil. Typically, air monitoring stations are placed around the perimeter of a site of an ongoing remediation to monitor air lead concentrations that might result from site emissions. The National Ambient Air Quality (NAAQ) standard, established in 1978 to be a quarterly average of 1.5 μg/m[SUP3], is often used as a trigger level for corrective action to reduce emissions. This study explored modeling approaches for assessing potential risks to children from air lead emissions from the RSR Superfund site in West Dallas, TX, during demolition and removal of a smelter facility. The EPA Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic (IEUBK) model and the International Commission of Radiologic Protection (ICRP ) lead model were used to simulate blood lead concentrations in children, based on monitored air lead concentrations. Although air lead concentrations at monitoring stations located in the downwind community intermittently exceeded the NAAQ standard, both models indicated that exposures to children in the community areas did not pose a significant long-term or acute risk. Long-term risk was defined as greater than 5% probability of a child having a long-term blood lead concentration that exceeded 10 μg/dl, which is the CDC and the EPA blood lead concern level. Short-term or acute risk was defined as greater than 5% probability of a child having a blood lead concentration on any given day that exceeded 20 μg/dl, which is the CDC trigger level for medical evaluation (this is not intended to imply that 20 μg/dl is a threshold for health effects in children exposed acutely to airborne lead). The estimated potential long-term and short-term... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]