Lead in Air

Sources of lead emissions vary from place to place, with highest air concentrations of lead usually found near metals industries.

Basic Information

Phaseout of Lead in Gasoline

Since the passage of the Clean Air Act, EPA and its federal partners phased out lead in on-highway automobile gasoline and dramatically reduced lead releases to the air from industrial facilities. The agency’s air research program continues to support efforts to monitor and assess lead levels in the air and protect people from potential exposures and associated health risks.

Learn more about the history of the phaseout of lead in gasoline and air quality trends for lead.

Current Lead Air Pollution Sources

While national average concentrations of lead in the air have decreased dramatically since the 1980s, some sources remain. Nationally, lead emissions from aircraft (primarily small piston-engine aircraft) that use leaded gasoline are the largest single source of lead to the air. However, sources of lead emissions, and their contribution to lead air pollution, vary from one area to another.

Potential lead exposure in your area depends on where you live. Concentrations of lead may be elevated near industrial sources like smelters and other metals industries (including ore and metals processing facilities and lead-acid battery manufacturers). Concentrations of lead may also be elevated in areas downwind of and in very close proximity to airports with heavy traffic from small piston-engine aircraft using leaded gasoline. People living or working at or near these sources may be exposed by breathing lead in the air or through hand-to-mouth contact with lead dust that has settled from the air onto surfaces. Read EPA’s technical update on lead near U.S. airports and analysis of concentrations of lead in air at and downwind of airports.

In addition, smoking and second-hand smoke and e-cigarettes can be a source of lead exposure inside of homes and buildings.

Learn more about lead in air pollution.

EPA Programs

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

• NAAQS for Lead: The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set NAAQS for certain listed air pollutants called “criteria pollutants.” There are NAAQS for lead and five other pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment (ozone and related photochemical oxidants, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and sulfur oxides). The standards for lead are meant to protect public health and public welfare. As the Clean Air Act requires, EPA periodically reviews the NAAQS for lead in air and the underlying science and considers whether revisions to the standards are appropriate based on current, relevant science, and information. Learn more about the NAAQS review process.

• Monitoring for Lead in Air: Air quality monitors located across the country measure how much lead is in the outside air. EPA tracks air quality trends for lead using data from this network of monitors. 

  EPA also uses the monitoring data to determine which areas are not meeting NAAQS for lead. If an area continues to have air pollution levels greater than the standards, it may be designated "nonattainment." If an area is designated as not meeting the lead NAAQS, its state is required to develop a State Implementation Plan to reduce lead air pollution in the area that is not meeting the lead NAAQS.

National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPS)

EPA regulates lead as a toxic air pollutant by limiting the emissions that come from some industrial sources. The regulations that limit toxic air pollutant emissions are called National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, or NESHAPs. The following NESHAPs apply to industries that particularly handle lead.

• Primary Lead Smelting NESHAP: This NESHAP applies to new and existing primary lead processors engaged in producing lead metal from ore concentrates.  No primary lead smelters currently operate in the United States.
• Secondary Lead Smelting NESHAP: This NESHAP applies to new and existing secondary lead smelters, which are facilities that recycle lead-bearing scrap material, typically lead acid batteries, into elemental lead or lead alloys.
• Lead-Acid Battery Manufacturing Area Sources NESHAP: This NESHAP applies to new and existing lead acid battery manufacturing plants and lead acid battery component manufacturing plants that are “area sources,” facilities that can or do emit 10 or more tons per year of any single hazardous air pollutant or 25 or more tons per year of a combination of hazardous air pollutants. EPA regulates this industrial category due to its emissions of lead and cadmium.

In addition, NESHAPs for other industrial categories set limits on lead emissions from those facilities along with other toxic air pollutants.

New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)

New Source Performance Standards establish technology-based standards applicable to criteria pollutant emissions, and lead is one of the six criteria pollutants. The following NSPS apply to industries that particularly handle lead.

• Secondary Lead Smelting NSPS: This NSPS applies to secondary lead smelters that recycle lead-bearing scrap material, typically lead acid batteries, into elemental lead or lead alloys.
• Lead-Acid Battery Manufacturing NSPS: This NSPS applies to any facility that produces lead acid or lead acid storage batteries, including starting-lighting-ignition batteries and industrial storage batteries.

New Source Review (NSR) Permitting

The New Source Review (NSR) Permitting programs require stationary sources emitting certain air pollutants over specified levels to obtain a preconstruction permit prior to construction of a new facility or major modification to an existing facility.

• Mobile Source Regulations and Programs: EPA sets regulations and runs voluntary programs to reduce pollution from mobile sources (vehicles, engines, fuels, and equipment, including nonroad sources like aircraft).