Opinion ID: 338705
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: High lead concentrations in dust and dirt are prevalent in urban areas.

Text: 117 b. In most circumstances, lead from exhausts and not lead paint or lead from stationary sources is the primary source of lead in urban dust and dirt. 118 c. Children prone to pica, about 50 percent of those between the ages of one and three, eat nonfood objects, including dust and dirt. 119 d. As a result of ingesting dust and dirt contaminated with lead fallout, children can be expected to absorb lead into their bodies. 120 38 Fed.Reg. 33736. If the intermediate steps are supported by the evidence, the validity of the Administrator's conclusion as a reasonable hypothesis is unassailable. Our study of the underlying evidence convinces us that it is firm and convincing, and certainly sufficient to support the Administrator's hypothesis as reasonable. 121 Petitioners concede that lead concentrations are high in the dust near highways and adjacent to homes with lead paint. They contest, however, that high lead concentrations are otherwise prevalent in urban areas. PPG/duPont Supp.Br. at 37 n. 86. The facts rebut their argument. The NAS Panel found that (t)he concentration of lead in street dust and surface soil of large cities is extremely high. NAS Report at 30 (emphasis added). This conclusion was based on a finding that, compared to the usual range of dust lead concentrations of 2-200 parts per million (ppm), dust lead concentrations in cities averaged 1,636 ppm and 2,413 ppm respectively for residential and commercial sites. Even in city parks lead concentrations ranged from 194 ppm to 3,357 ppm. Id. Other evidence of record shows high lead concentrations in Central Park Zoo in New York City, JA 2630, and school playgrounds in Philadelphia, JA 674. 122 Where does this high dust lead content come from? The Administrator concluded that since 90 percent of the lead in the ambient air is from automotive exhausts and since, as petitioners concede, PPG/duPont Reply Br. at 17, the lead eventually settles to the ground, most of the lead in dust is a product of automobile lead emissions. Petitioners do not seriously contest this; indeed their own studies suggest this by showing that lead content in soil decreases with distance from highways. 94 Rather, they argue that lead from paint or stationary sources is the source of lead in dust and dirt in areas where young children play. PPG/duPont Supp.Br. at 37 n. 86. This argument reflects petitioners' consistent refusal to recognize that city children play regularly in city streets, where petitioners concede lead dustfall from automobiles accumulates. PPG/duPont Reply Br. at 17. Since the Administrator's concern about dustfall is based on the harm it may cause city children, petitioners' argument that children are not exposed to automobile dustfall where they play must be rejected. 123 Petitioners do not contest that pica is a common phenomenon among preschool children, although they note that it is a psychological disorder; it is not characteristic of all children   . PPG/duPont Supp.Br. at 37 n. 86. While this is certainly true, pica is characteristic of a significant number of children. Petitioners do not challenge the conclusion of the NAS Panel that pica occurs in at least 50 percent of both middle- and lower-class children. NAS Report at 133. 124 On the basis of this evidence alone it is reasonable to hypothesize that children with pica will ingest dust and dirt containing lead dustfall from automobiles. Indeed, on such limited evidence the NAS Panel accepted the dustfall hypothesis as credible: 125 Airborne lead wastes from such sources as automobile emissions and the weathering and demolition of old buildings can be expected to have a significant additive effect on the total intake. This would be sufficient to evoke compensatory metabolic responses that are now considered subclinical (such as increased urinary ALA), at the very least. It may be estimated that dustfall from airborne lead, if swallowed, can make a significant contribution to a small child's total lead intake and thereby contribute to the occurrence of lead poisoning, especially in urban areas. Even so, the direct ingestion of lead-pigment paints is clearly the principal environmental source in cases of severe acute lead poisoning in young children. 126 NAS Report at 140 (emphasis added). Again petitioners focus on the last sentence and emphasize the danger from leaded paints. Since the Administrator is in agreement with them on the point, however, their arguments are superfluous. 127 Petitioners' primary claims are not addressed to the evidence that establishes the dustfall hypothesis as tenable. Rather, they argue that there is no evidence that lead dustfall from automobiles is in fact swallowed by children with pica. While such proof is not necessary to establish the Administrator's hypothesis as reasonable, see pages --- - --- of --- U.S.App.D.C., pages 44-45 of 541 F.2d supra, we note that a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence does support his conclusion. See Appendix B to this opinion. 128 In any case, all the evidence suggesting that the children with pica tend to eat dust contaminated with lead fallout from automobiles takes the Administrator's theory far beyond the hypothesis stage. He offered only a tentative result, a hypothesis consistent with information provided by a variety of studies. 38 Fed.Reg. 33736. Undoubtedly, he has shown that. Indeed, as reasonable medical hypotheses go, this one is particularly solid. This is vividly demonstrated by recalling the kind of evidence relied upon to justify similar precautionary relief in Reserve Mining. 129 The question in that case was the validity of the hypothesis that ingestion of asbestos fibers was dangerous to health. The reason for concern was that epidemiological studies had associated inhalation of asbestos with cancer. The evidence supporting the hypothesis was of three kinds: (1) a court-sponsored study to determine whether asbestos fibers were present in residents who drank the polluted water; (2) animal studies designed to measure whether asbestos fibers can be absorbed into the body from the stomach; and (3) epidemiological studies associating inhalation of asbestos fibers with gastrointestinal cancer and the theory that this may be due to ingestion of asbestos fibers initially inhaled. Reserve Mining Co. v. EPA, supra, 514 F.2d at 514. Upon review of the evidence the court concluded (1) asbestos fibers were not present in long-time residents; (2) the animal studies were ambiguous on whether asbestos fibers could be absorbed if ingested; and (3) the theory that asbestos workers ingested asbestos fibers as well as inhaled them was no more than a theory, id. at 514-516. Nonetheless, solely on the basis of this evidence, the court concluded that the theory that excess cancers may be attributed to the ingestion of asbestos fibers rests on a tenable medical hypothesis, id. at 516. On the basis of this tenable hypothesis, the court accepted the further hypothesis that asbestos could be ingested from the drinking water and that, therefore, there was a reasonable medical concern for the public health which justified abatement of the asbestos discharge under the endangering language of the FWPCA. Id. at 520. 130 None of these uncertainties cloud the Administrator's dustfall hypothesis. Lead is present in children, and in elevated amounts. Children do ingest dust, and dust is heavily laden with lead. Animal studies prove that ingested lead dust is absorbed into the bloodstream. And epidemiological studies associate high lead concentrations in children with high lead concentrations in dirt and dust, and with proximity to automobiles. Since the automobile is the predominant source of lead in dust, the Administrator's hypothesis stands firm as reasonable, undoubtedly with more support in studies already made than the hypothesis that justified regulation in Reserve Mining. Indeed, the primary difference between this case and Reserve Mining is that the Eighth Circuit justified ordering abatement of asbestos discharges into the water solely on the basis of a hypothesis, 95 while here the hypothesis is offered only as support for the regulations, the primary basis being the demonstrated danger to health posed by inhalation of lead emissions. In this context, and keeping in mind the precautionary nature of the will endanger standard, we have no difficulty in finding the dustfall hypothesis sufficiently well grounded to support the Administrator's limited reliance on it. 96 C. Summary of the Evidence 131 From a vast mass of evidence the Administrator has concluded that the emission products of lead additives will endanger the public health. He has handled an extraordinarily complicated problem with great care and candor. The evidence did not necessarily always point in one direction and frequently, until EPA authorized research, there was no evidence at all. 97 The Administrator reached his conclusion only after hearings spread over several months, consideration of thousands of pages of documents, publication of three health documents, three formal comment periods, and receipt of hundreds of comments. Each study was considered independently; its worth was assessed only after it was measured against any critical comments. From the totality of the evidence the Administrator concluded that regulation under Section 211(c)(1)(A) was warranted. 98 132 In tracking his path through the evidence we, in our appellate role, have also considered separately each study and the objections petitioners make thereto. In no case have we found the Administrator's use of the evidence to be arbitrary or capricious. Having rejected the individual objections, we also reject the overall claim of error. We find the Administrator's analysis of the evidence and assessment of the risks to be well within the flexibility allowed by the will endanger standard. Accordingly, we affirm his determination that lead emissions present a significant risk of harm to the health of urban populations, particularly to the health of city children. 38 Fed.Reg. 33734.