Lead at Superfund Sites: Guidance

Related Lead Links

This page provides downloadable guidance documents and short sheets related to lead risk assessment that are available from the Technical Review Workgroup for Metals and Asbestos.

Many of these documents should be consulted for use with the IEUBK model and/or the ALM (see notations with each document description below).

On related pages:

On this page:

Updated Residential Soil Lead Guidance for CERCLA Sites and RCRA Corrective Action Facilities (January 2024)

This document updates the residential soil screening levels and EPA’s approach for reducing lead exposure at CERCLA sites and RCRA Corrective Action Facilities in a manner consistent with the best available science. This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model.

Estimating the Soil Lead Concentration Term for the Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic (IEUBK) Model

[OSWER #9200.1-78] (September 2007)

This document describes how to estimate the PbS for residential exposure scenarios and recommends the use of the arithmetic mean or average concentration for the PbS. It provides recommendations for circumstances when data should be weighted when estimating the PbS and how the data should be weighted for a residential yard, which includes common play areas within apartment complexes.


Lead Model Training Slides and Videos

These materials should be consulted when using the IEUBK model or the ALM. The training presentation is for people with limited experience with EPA's lead risk assessment approaches. The training slides address the following items: Introduction to EPA Lead Risk Assessment, IEUBK Model, ALM, Risk Assessment Issues and New Guidance, and Intermittent Exposure Guidance.

Module 1

Module 2

Module 3

XRF (X-ray fluorescence) Answers to Frequently-Asked Questions

(May, 2004)

Answers to frequently asked questions on the proper use of field-portable x-ray fluorescence (FP-XRF) instruments to collect data at hazardous waste sites for use in the IEUBK model.

Assessing Intermittent or Variable Exposures at Lead Sites

(August 2024)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model or the ALM. It provides guidance and recommendations for the assessment of lead risks when exposures are not continuous and chronic to communities. Scenarios include exposure to secondary locations other than the primary residence (e.g., daycares, parks or play areas). This document also assesses less frequent exposures connected with recreational scenarios or trespasser scenarios for older children and adults. This document augments existing guidance pertaining to the IEUBK model and the ALM. This methodology does not replace the approaches recommended for assessing standard residential or continuous non-residential exposure scenarios, which are the most common applications for the IEUBK model and the ALM, respectively.

Assessing Intermittent or Variable Exposures at Lead Sites (pdf) (671.38 KB)

The Time-Weighted Average Risk Calculation Tool allows the user to calculate a time-weighted average of the exposure point concentration for lead (Pb) based on intermittent exposure to a site for a child.

Time-Weighted Average Risk Calculation Tool (xlsm)

Superfund Lead-Contaminated Residential Sites Handbook

(March 2024)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model. It provides comprehensive reference for project managers addressing lead-contaminated residential sites. The handbook lays out only the minimum considerations and promotes national consistency in characterizing and cleaning up lead-contaminated residential sites. Contents of the handbook include aspects of the remediation process from initial research on the nature and extent of site contamination through cleanup level selection, prevention of recontamination, and community health education programs. This handbook is not policy or guidance. Users are encouraged to refer to appropriate Agency guidance and policy.

Individual chapters and appendices of the handbook:

TRW Recommendations for Performing Human Health Risk Analysis on Small Arms Shooting Ranges

[OSWER #9285.7-37] (March 2003)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model or the ALM. It provides guidance and recommendations for performing risk assessment on land currently or formerly used as ranges. It supplements EPA Region 2’s Best Management Practices for Lead at Outdoor Shooting Ranges. The document contains brief discussions of the regulatory background for outdoor shooting ranges and the toxicology of lead on humans, an operational and physical description of the different types of outdoor shooting ranges, and the fate of spent lead ammunition in the environment and its bioavailability. It also provides recommendations on how the IEUBK model and the ALM can be used to predict the risk to human health from spent lead ammunition on small arms shooting ranges.

OSWER Directive: Clarification to the 1994 Revised Interim Soil Lead (Pb) Guidance for CERCLA Sites and RCRA Corrective Action Facilities

[OSWER Dir #9200.4-27P] (August 1998)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model or the ALM. It clarifies the 1994 Revised Interim Soil Lead Guidance for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) Sites and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action Facilities.

OSWER Directive: Revised Interim Soil Lead Guidance for CERCLA Sites and RCRA Corrective Action Facilities

[OSWER Dir #9355.4-12] (August 1994)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK or the ALM. It describes the residential screening level for lead, calculated using the default parameters of the IEUBK model. This interim directive establishes a streamlined approach for determining protective levels for lead in soil at CERCLA sites and RCRA facilities subject to corrective action under RCRA §3004(u) or §3008(h).

Validation Strategy for The Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic Model for Lead in Children

[EPA 9285.7-21] (December 1994)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model. It describes the considerations and methods for characterizing the confidence to be placed in the output from the IEUBK model, version 0.99d.

Recommendations for Sieving Soil and Dust Samples at Lead Sites for Assessment of Incidental Ingestion

[OLEM Dir #9200.1-128] (July 2016)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model or the ALM. It provides recommendations and protocols for the collection, preparation and analysis of lead in soil and dust for use in lead modeling.

Short Sheet: TRW Lead Committee Recommendations Holding Times for Lead Analysis of Soil Samples

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model or the ALM. It discusses recommended holding times for analysis of lead in soil samples.

Short Sheet: IEUBK Model Soil/Dust Ingestion Rates

[EPA #540-F-00-007, OSWER #9285.7-33] (December 1999)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model. It provides recommendations on the substitution of default soil/dust ingestion rates in the IEUBK model.

Bioavailability Guidance

This webpage provides guidance and technical reports on assessing relative bioavailability in soil at Superfund sites.
 

Short Sheet: IEUBK Model Mass Fraction of Soil in Indoor Dust (MSD) Variable

[EPA #540-F-00-008, OSWER #9285.7-34] (June 1998)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model. It provides updated guidance on the mass fraction of soil in indoor dust (MSD), the fraction of house dust derived from outdoor soil. The MSD is a variable in the dust lead Multiple Source Analysis module of the IEUBK model.

Short Sheet: Overview of the IEUBK Model for Lead in Children

[NTIS #PB99-9635-8, OSWER #9285.7-31] (August 1997)

This document should be consulted when using the IEUBK model. It provides general information on the model.

OLEM Directive 9285.6-56 “Update to the Adult Lead Methodology’s Default Baseline Blood Lead Concentration and Geometric Standard Deviation Parameters”

(May 2017)

The recommendations in this document provide the technical basis for updating the default baseline blood-lead concentration and default geometric standard deviation input parameters of the Adult Lead Methodology and maternal blood-lead concentration in the Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic Model.

OLEM Directive 9285.6-54 “Recommendations for Assessing Short-Term Exposure Scenarios Involving Lead at Superfund Sites”

(August 2016)

This document describes an option for assessing short-term exposures to lead-contaminated media. For situations where short-term (exposure for less than 90 days), periodic (exposure less frequently than 1 exposure per 1 week), or acute (less than 14 days) exposures are expected, the model exposure scenario may need to be adjusted to meet the minimum exposure frequency. Alternative modeling approaches may be explored. When alternative modeling approaches are employed, users are encouraged to characterize the results in terms of resulting peak blood lead concentration from the exposure and risk of exceeding a range of blood lead concentrations during peak blood lead concentration and the duration of the elevated blood lead concentration.

OLEM Directive 9285.6-52 “Recommendations for Using Blood Lead Data at Superfund and RCRA Corrective Action Sites”

(August 2016)

The recommendation in this document clarifies the role of blood lead data in Superfund lead risk assessments. This document provides the technical basis for appropriate uses of blood lead data from various monitoring programs and from specifically designed studies at Superfund sites.

OSWER Directive 9285.7-81 "Guidance for the Sampling and Analysis of Lead in Indoor Residential Dust for use in the Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic (IEUBK) Model"

(December 2008)

The purpose of this guidance document is to recommend methods for collecting and analyzing indoor residential dust data to estimate the mean concentration of lead in dust for use in the Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic (IEUBK) model. The recommendations apply to applications of the IEUBK model in Superfund lead risk assessments and may not be appropriate for other applications

Recommendations for Default Age Range in the Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic (IEUBK) Model

[OLEM Directive #9200.2-1] (November 2017)

This document recommends that the default age range in the IEUBK model be modified from 0 – 84 months to 12 – 72 months based on the current science and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendation.

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Last updated on October 3, 2024