It seems that we’ve been poisoning our kids. Or, at least, our schools have.
Almost 90 percent of the 249 school water systems recently tested for lead showed some level of lead in the drinking water. Six schools in the Granite School District had water containing “levels of lead that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘action level’ of 15 micrograms per liter.” Three more schools also had lead levels above federal guidelines. That’s a lot of lead.
Only 10 percent of schools tested have drinking water that is entirely lead-free. Only 25 percent of Utah’s schools have been tested so far.
Lead poisoning can cause developmental delays in young children, although exposure needs to be consistent and over a long period of time. Water is often contaminated when lead bleeds out of old pipes and plumbing fixtures. A child who attends a school from kindergarten through sixth grade could be exposed to lead-infused water every day for seven years. Without knowing it.
Parents can find results of lead testing online.
Federal rules require lead testing for residential water systems, but no law requires schools to test for lead. That’s why the state can only “encourage” schools to test their water.
But that’s all the state can do – ask.
After spot checks during the spring and summer found lead in several school water systems, the state asked all of Utah’s schools to test for lead.
Marie Owens, director of the state Division of Drinking Water, said the results “show that we should look. Children are a vulnerable population, and they’re at school longer than they are at home, so we should look.”
With such a high rate of positive results, perhaps it is time the state requires school districts to test water systems. No school districts have yet refused the state’s invitation to test, but should we really rely on an invitation?
The costs to test water for lead are minimal, especially here where the state has offered assistance with testing. What districts are afraid of, though, is finding out their water is contaminated, and paying for necessary remedial measures. But the state has also offered to help find funding for any necessary remedial measures. So there is really no good reason to refuse to test. Schools need to disclose the possible risks of attending school, and to properly disclose those risks, they need to know them.
Our schools are tasked with educating our children and ensuring their day-to-day safety. The medical mantra should apply in education as well: first do no harm.
Let’s keep the lead in the pencils.