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https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/reducing-lead-tap-water-would-yield-billions-previously-ignored-health-and-other

 

From: Kelly, Margie <mkelly@nrdc.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2023 7:39 AM
To: Calkin, Kayla <kcalkin@nrdc.org>; Calkin, Kayla (via LCRgroups list) <LCRgroups@lists.partnershipproject.org>
Subject: New Harvard study looks at health benefits of removing lead from water

 

Hello,

 

Here’s some news about the health benefits of removing lead from drinking water that is hot off the presses.

 

Just this morning, Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health released a study about the EPA’s cost:benefit analysis for removing lead from water, finding that it would generate $9 billion in health benefits annually.

 

We are hoping to use this study to call for a stronger Lead and Copper Rule.

 

The NRDC and Harvard press releases are below. Links to the study are in the NRDC release.

 

 

For Immediate Release  

Contact: Margie Kelly, NRDC, mkelly@nrdc.org, 541-222-9699 

 

Reducing Lead in Tap Water Would Yield Billions in Previously Ignored Health and Other Benefits, Far Surpassing Costs  

Harvard Analysis Should Bolster EPA’s New Lead in Water Rule Coming Soon 

WASHINGTON (May 10, 2023) – Cutting lead levels in drinking water would yield at least $9 billion in annual health benefits and other benefits that taken together exceed costs by at least 35-fold, according to a new analysis by researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study also found the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) significantly underestimates the health benefits from reducing lead in tap water.  

The analysis was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Environmental Research by Harvard researchers Ronnie Levin and Joel Schwartz. The authors are recognized lead experts who were formerly involved in developing EPA’s estimates in the 1980’s of the health benefits of reducing lead exposure. 

“Lead-contaminated drinking water causes far more harm to the health of children and adults than is generally recognized and has a disproportionate impact on low-income and communities of color,” said Erik D. Olson, Senior Strategic Director for Health at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “The benefits of cutting lead levels in our tap water — lessening harm to kids’ brains, shrinking levels of heart disease and death, and increasing equitable access to safe water — far outstrip the costs.”  

The Harvard analysis shows that the EPA’s January 2021 proposed plan to regulate lead in drinking water during the Trump Administration failed to consider the vast majority of the $9.2 billion in health benefits that EPA’s published scientific assessments found are caused by lead exposure. The study found the EPA had “developed a highly detailed and comprehensive cost analysis while ignoring 95 percent of the health effects it has determined are causally related to lead exposure.” The study noted the EPA’s 2021 analysis of the economic costs of addressing lead in water is 359 pages long while the discussion of health benefits totals 56 pages.   

The Harvard study concludes that reducing lead levels in tap water based would lead to greater annual benefits by two orders of magnitude – ranging from $11.7 billion to $17.1 billion per year – compared to EPA’s estimate of just $645 million and costs of $335 million per year. “Even the lowest estimate of materials benefits alone greatly exceeds all the estimated costs of the rule – effectively, the health benefits are free,” the authors write. 

A few examples of benefits of reducing health harms that EPA recognizes are causally linked to lead but fails to include in its estimates are: 

In addition, the researchers noted that both EPA and numerous engineering experts have found that large benefits will accrue from better controlling water corrosion, which would be required by EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule. The total benefits they calculate from reduced corrosion of water infrastructure as well as less corrosion of some household appliances ranges from $2.4 billion to $7.8 billion per year. 

Additionally, the authors point out that additional measures to reduce lead levels in tap water, such as requiring replacement of all lead service lines, will yield even greater benefits, but these actions were not required by the January 2021 rule.  

The EPA is expected to issue new lead in drinking water regulations by September 2023 that would take effect in 2024. Strengthening the Lead and Copper Rule to require better water treatment and replacing the nation’s nearly 10 million lead water pipes would “yield major health gains and benefit water systems,” Olson added. 

Note: Co-author Ronnie Levin received partial funding from NRDC, but NRDC had no involvement in the analysis, writing or submission of the study. 

“A better cost: benefit analysis yields better and fairer results: EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Revision,” Ronnie Levin, Joel Schwartz, Environmental Research, July 15, 2023, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37080271/.  

### 

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law, and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd). Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


NEWS

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 

677 Huntington Ave. 

Boston, MA 02115 

Contact: Maya Brownstein

mbrownstein@hsph.harvard.edu

 

Regulations reducing lead and copper contamination in drinking water generate $9 billion of health benefits per year according to new analysis 

 

The cost-benefit analysis far exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency‘s public estimates and could help inform improvements to current regulations

 

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 10, 2023

 

Key points:

 

Boston, MA—The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Lead and Copper Drinking Water Rule Revision (LCRR) costs $335 million to implement while generating $9 billion in health benefits annually—far exceeding the EPA’s public statements that the LCRR generates $645 million in annual health benefits, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers also estimate that the LCRR generates at least $2 billion in infrastructure benefits—something the EPA has never calculated—bringing its total benefit to cost ratio to at least 35:1, compared to the EPA’s stated benefit to cost ratio of 2:1.

 

“We thought the benefits of the LCRR might exceed costs by an order of magnitude—but they were many times that,” said co-lead author Ronnie Levin, instructor in the Department of Environmental Health. “The benefits include better health for children and adults; non-health benefits in the form of reduced corrosion damage to water infrastructure and appliances; and improved equity in the U.S., as lead-contaminated drinking water disproportionately impacts low-income and minority populations on whom health damages have more severe effects.”

 

The final version of the study was posted online May 4, 2023, and will be published in the July 15, 2023 edition of Environmental Research. Currently, the EPA is developing the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI), a set of new regulations intended to improve upon the impacts of the LCRR.

 

To assess these impacts, the researchers performed a cost-benefit analysis by monetizing all 17 of the health endpoints determined by the EPA to be causally related to lead exposure. These health endpoints include preterm birth, declining cognitive function in children, and hypertension and coronary heart disease in adults. According to the analysis, the LCRR generates a sum of annual benefits much larger than the annual cost of its implementation: $335 million for implementation costs versus $9.2 billion in health damages avoided each year, plus between $2.4 billion and $7.8 billion in infrastructure damages avoided. By comparison, the EPA published a cost-benefit analysis of the LCRR that posited that the regulations generate only $645 million annually in avoided health damages. The EPA’s analysis was based on monetization of only one health endpoint.

 

The EPA implemented the LCRR in 2021 to strengthen the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule. The LCRR called for sampling for lead at schools and childcare facilities, providing better information to communities, and requiring better corrosion control treatment and identification of lead pipes. Soon after, the agency introduced the LCRI to address the shortcomings of the LCRR, particularly around equity. The LCRI would strengthen tap sampling requirements and improve compliance to identify locations with elevated water lead levels and urgently replace lead service lines, particularly in historically marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by lead exposure. The EPA has committed to publishing the LCRI by the end of 2024.

 

“Our study found that stronger rules to reduce lead in drinking water come with enormous benefits for individuals and the United States as a whole. Therefore, we believe the LCRR should be made as rigorous as possible,” said co-lead author Joel Schwartz, professor in the Department of Environmental Health.

 

Partial funding for the study came from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

 

“A better cost:benefit analysis yields better and fairer results: EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Revision,” Ronnie Levin, Joel Schwartz, Environmental Research, July 15, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115738

 

Visit the Harvard Chan School website for the latest news, press releases, and multimedia offerings.

 

###

 

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.

 

 

 

 

 

From: Calkin, Kayla (via LCRgroups list) <LCRgroups@lists.partnershipproject.org>
Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 8:51 AM
To: Calkin, Kayla (via LCRgroups list) <LCRgroups@lists.partnershipproject.org>
Cc: Julia Alschuler <julia@team-arc.com>, Faisa Ahmed <faisa@team-arc.com>, Leysha Caraballo <leysha@team-arc.com>, Brad Fleming <bfleming@partnershipproject.org>
Subject: Reminder: Call with Arc Strategies today at 11 AM ET

Hi Team –

 

Just a quick reminder for our messaging call with Arc Strategies today at 11 ET about our public advocacy messaging going into the fall.

 

The zoom link is HERE (ignore Teams if you see it in the invite).

 

Thank you!

 

Kayla

 

 

Kayla Calkin

Federal Campaigns Director

 

Natural Resources Defense Council &

NRDC Action Fund

1152 15TH STREET NW, SUITE 300

WASHINGTON, DC 20005

M:202.680.8417
KCALKIN@NRDC.ORG    

SHE/HER Pronouns     
NRDCACTIONFUND.org

         

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