What you need to know about lead in schools
How concerned should I be about lead in my child’s drinking water?
Lead is a neurotoxin that can damage a child’s physical health, intelligence and impulse control. The effects are permanent, and young children are especially vulnerable.
Is there is a safe level of lead in water?
There is not. Nonetheless, most plumbing systems contain some lead, even in newer buildings. The Food and Drug Administration limit for bottled water is 5 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency uses a 15 ppb threshold for taking action in public water supplies.
How does lead get into a school’s water?
Lead usually enters through the school’s plumbing. The substance can leach into the water supply from pipes made with lead, lead solder or galvanized steel. Water becomes contaminated the longer it sits in the pipes. Brass plumbing components — often used in sinks and faucets — can also contain lead.
This 2011 paper summarizes, in fairly readable language, much of what we know about how lead gets into water.
How can I find out if my child’s school was tested?
The school district is posting test results online whenever a lead sample reaches or exceeds 15 parts per billion. You can request more extensive results by visiting https://sdhc.k12.fl.us/contact and selecting comment type “question” and the topic “water testing.” Alternatively, consult our database, which currently has all the readings that were completed by mid-July. We will continue to update the database as testing continues.
What if I’m an employee?
Adult brains are not as easily damaged by lead as children’s, but experts still say there is still no safe level of lead. For pregnant women, increased levels of lead in the blood raises the risk of premature birth and low birth weight. Lead exposure also has been found to cause high blood pressure, hypertension, male infertility, kidney failure and an increased risk of dying from coronary heart disease.
What’s happening in Pinellas schools?
The Pinellas County School District began testing yearly in 2016. Its policy calls for removing any fixture where water tests above the 15 ppb level. Whenever it does, the “principal will immediately send a communication to the school community including employees and families of all students,” its policy says.
What about Pasco schools?
The Pasco County School District doesn’t test, except in five schools it provides water to because they are not connected to a municipal system. Pasco uses 15 ppb as a threshold and notifies parents about results above that level.
Why are older schools at greater risk?
For most of the 20th century, lead was freely allowed in piping. In 1986, a federal law was passed that severely reduced the amount that could be used. But the law didn’t require old pipes to be replaced, meaning there’s a real possibility that schools built before the law took effect still have lead in the water delivery systems.
Why did you use the year schools were acquired?
The district is prioritizing campuses for testing based on the year the property the campus sits on was acquired. Although some campuses have newer buildings than that, a district spokesman said this is a good approach because it provides each campus’ worst case. We will update our online database with the ages of buildings if that data becomes available.
Want to read more?
The American Association of Pediatrics released a policy statement in June 2016 summarizing the current state of research on childhood lead exposure and making a series of recommendations for how schools and governments should react.
Here’s information from the EPA’s landing page on lead, and a CDC paper on the effect of lead in drinking water.
This 2010 paper, by three prominent lead researchers, summarizes key findings about lead in school water across America.
Yanna Lambrinidou, a researcher at Virginia Tech, authored this “Ten Myths” document about lead in drinking water. Lambrinidou has become a prominent voice for the harm lead can cause children after helping expose lead problems in Washington, D.C., and Flint, Mich.
Here are links to a few other helpful papers.
Have a question we didn’t answer?
Email [email protected] with your suggestions, and we’ll update this page if we can.