I live in Allentown, Pa., where a remarkable 23.1 percent of children tested had excessive lead. I also work with Head Start and we actually had our funding cut for testing children because they general idea was it wasn't a thing in 2016. Now it is a thing against and we again start testing every child in school. We just had to switch to getting them going to their doctor to check their blood.
My home was built in 1894 and the original wall paper was removed in 2007 before we moved in and all the wood work isn't painted. I found lead all over the house where a few doors or wall was painted in the bathroom and kitchen. Everyone just told me to paint over it but I actually stripped it all and what a pain! No wonder it is an issue no one want's to spend the time or energy removing this stuff when you can just paint over it.
e.g. for asbestos, occasionally the best choice (depending on the location of the asbestos containing material and its current condition) is to leave it in place and secure it / envelop it.
In some cases, removing the asbestos bearing material entirely would increase the chance of it entering someone's lungs.
I believe this kind of tradeoff can be applied to lead bearing materials too.
Of course, there's also the peace of mind factor. And that's valued differently by people. Given a high enough budget, removal can probably always be done safely. But sometimes the required budget is awfully high.
My home was built in 1894 and the original wall paper was removed in 2007 before we moved in and all the wood work isn't painted. I found lead all over the house where a few doors or wall was painted in the bathroom and kitchen. Everyone just told me to paint over it but I actually stripped it all and what a pain! No wonder it is an issue no one want's to spend the time or energy removing this stuff when you can just paint over it.