Lead-Safe Wisconsin: Laws, Regulations, and Policy Approaches
Both Wisconsin and federal laws protect people from lead. If state and federal rules differ, the stricter one must be followed.
Protecting Wisconsin Children from Lead Poisoning
Lead is a toxic metal. Every year, thousands of Wisconsin children are poisoned because of exposures to lead in paint, dust, soil, old plumbing, and more. Learn more about the impacts of lead poisoning at Lead-Safe Wisconsin: What is Lead Poisoning?
To stop lead poisoning, we must act take action before a child is exposed, catch exposures early, and offer immediate support when a child is lead poisoned.
Lead poisoning is preventable. By aligning strong policy, dedicated funding, and targeted public health strategies, we can end lead poisoning in Wisconsin.
See Protecting Wisconsin's Children from Lead Poisoning: Strategic approaches, P-03831 (PDF) to learn more.
What Wisconsin's lead laws cover
Wisconsin has several statutes and rules about lead hazards. They set requirements for:
- House sales.
- Landlord and tenant agreements.
- Lead hazard reduction and renovation.
- Public health response to lead poisoned children.
- Residential facilities.
- Reporting blood lead test results for adults and children.
Opportunities for system changes
Wisconsin local health departments are being asked to do more with less, strained by outdated laws and lack of state investment.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that all children with lead poisoning receive a public health response. A child is considered lead poisoned if they have a blood lead level over 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. Wisconsin law, however, does not require a response until a child's blood lead level is 4 times higher. This leaves thousands of children unsupported.
The following strategies, when implemented together, will mean fewer lead poisoned children in Wisconsin.
Waiting to respond until a childhood lead poisoning case becomes more severe is dangerous and worsens the health outcomes.
Aligning statutory requirements for a public health response to the state definition of lead poisoning would help to stop childhood lead exposures sooner. A University of Wisconsin-Madison cost-benefit analysis found that this would result in an estimated $2.5 billion in net benefits.
Local health departments urgently need resources. State funding for local lead poisoning response was established over 30 years ago, in 1993, and has not been increased since.
Increasing state resources would allow local health departments to provide comprehensive lead investigations, nursing case management, and education to the families of all lead poisoned children.
The only way to prevent lead poisoning is to stop exposure to lead.
Wisconsin families need support for removing dangerous lead paint hazards from their homes. Establishing programs to help low- to moderate-income homeowners replace lead-painted windows, doors, and other high-risk building components would give families they power they need to stop lead poisoning before it happens.
When local governments have the authority to address unsafe rental housing, they can confront lead hazards before children are poisoned.
Supporting local governments' ability to establish sustainable programs based on local housing and public health needs would help to decrease the prevalence of childhood lead poisoning.
Current Wisconsin laws and regulations
- Environmental health:
- Landlord and tenant:
- Disclosures by owners of residential real estate:
- Certification for the identification, removal, and reduction of lead-based paint hazards:
- Wisconsin Admin. Code ch. DHS 163 (PDF)
- For more information, visit: Wisconsin's Lead-Safe Renovation Rule
- Reporting of blood lead test results:
- Lead poisoning or lead exposure prevention grants:
Other state agencies enforce additional rules, such as rules for drinking water and child care licensing. To learn more, visit:
Current federal laws and regulations
- Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act (Title X): Congress passed this law in 1992. It sets the federal plan for lowering lead paint exposure in houses.
- Toxic Substances Control Act, Title IV: Defines hazardous levels of lead in paint, dust, and soil.
- 42 CFR 35 Subpart A: Lead Disclosure Rule: Requires disclosure of known information on lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards before the sale or lease of most pre-1978 housing.
- 24 CFR Part 35: Lead Safe Housing Rule: Applies to most pre-1978 "target housing" that is federally owned and/or receiving federal assistance.
- 40 CFR Part 745: EPA's Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule: Requires firms performing renovation, repair, and painting projects (RRP) that disturb lead-based paint in most pre-1978 homes, child care, pre-schools, and child-occupied facilities to obtain firm certification and use certified renovators.
- OSHA lead standards: These standards protect people who paint, renovate, or use paint in other ways.
- Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA): Protects people from lead in drinking water by required EPA to set national rules for public water systems to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water and by prohibiting the use of sale of plumbing materials that contain lead.
- Lead and Copper Rule: Established requirements for monitoring, corrosion control treatment, public education, and lead service line replacement to reduce lead and copper levels in drinking water.
- Lead Free Rule: Implements statutory restrictions on the use, sale, and distribution of pipes, plumbing fixtures, solder, or flux that are not "lead free."
- Clean Water Act (CWA): Prohibits discharges of pollutants, including lead, form a point source to a water of the United States unless authorized.
- Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) & Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA): RCRA regulates hazardous lead-bearing waste with leachable concentration of lead at 5ppm or greater from the point of generation to ultimate disposal in a controlled environment, helping to prevent lead from being released into the environment. CERLA addresses lead after it has been released into the environment.
- Clean Air Act: Gives EPA authority to regulate lead in multiple ways, including by setting national ambient air quality standards and emission standards for lead and regulating the use of lead as a fuel additive.