Home / Education / Should Water In Florida’s Schools Be Tested For Lead?
Should Water In Florida’s Schools Be Tested For Lead?
By Daniela Hurtado and Danielle Frew
March 27, 2017 Education
A new report suggests Florida public schools and daycares may have dangerously high quantities of lead into their mineral water.
Environment America, an advocacy group, argues rolling around in its propose that it’s not necessary to of learning high those levels are. The report accepts national concern covering the alarmingly high levels perfectly found on the h2o of places like Flint, Michigan.
Unlike Michigan,?Florida has never declared a situation of Emergency, yet two researchers say these levels pose a tangible?threat to children in public places schools near home.
Dr. Ronald Saff and Dr. Donald Axelrad conducted tests by two Tallahassee-area counties, Leon and Wakulla. Their results were startlingly consistent.
They tested water in 16 north Florida schools. All 16 had lead.
And it is said these can’t be the only two counties inside state that has a problem.
“When children go to school, they should have their brains protected,” Saff, an internist and allergist, said.
Students nationwide as well as in their state may very well be liable to lowering their IQ’s, he said: “What we’re finding is that they’re being exposed to lead, which puts them at risk for developing ADHD, criminal behaviors (and) cognitive decline.”
Environment America’s report also indicates there could a dilemma at school districts statewide.
“Currently, we gave Florida a failing grade with regards to the lead in normal water,” the group’s Florida State Director Jennifer Rubiello said, “because current state regulations requires absolutely nothing to prevent children’s drinking water from becoming laced with lead in college.”
When, for example, were taps in Alachua County schools last tested?
“There’s no requirement to evaluate for lead inside school’s water,” district spokeswoman Jackie Johnson said.
Gainesville Regional Utilities spokesman Patrick Donges?said GRU is possessing a plan together with the school board to find out water in schools.
When tests are performed, it’s not at all mandatory for Florida schools?to evaluate for lead after Environmental Protection Agency’s minimum regulations. The EPA’s mineral water standard for lead is 15 parts per billion. This marker may be known?as?an action level, if your the minimum?requirement is surpassed and results must?be reported.
Still, researchers question that standard.
“We’ll refer to it a technology-based standard. There are not employ public health, and it’s widely misunderstood, so 15 (parts per billion) is just not protective of human health,” Donald Axelrad, a Florida A&M professor, said.
On the website, the American Academy of Pediatrics say there isn’t any safe level.
According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the original source of lead in normal water is not really in large water systems, for instance Gainesville Regional Utilities. Rather, it’s from your water coursing through plumbing systems’ older pipes and fixtures.
“We’ve known lead is toxic for just two,000 years; why would we use lead pipes?” Axelrad said. “We don’t produce an inventory of lead water pipes in Florida. We certainly don’t contain a perfect feel strategies many homes or schools have pre-1986 plumbing fittings brimming with lead.”
“So we’re just whistling at night graveyard,” he stated.
Water isn’t in order children is usually in contact with lead. It may be found in dust, gas, plus in certain paints.
In 2012, the guts for Disease Control tested the blood of three,605 children in Florida for lead. The CDC found elevated stages of lead in 381 children in Hillsborough County, 282 in Duval, 184 in Polk, and 73 children in Alachua County. All were among the list of top 10 counties with the most cases.
“It’s the easiest on the problems,” Axelrad said. “We’re all already familiar with it. Let’s change it. Let’s get it done quick. Consider Florida having safe water in schools for all our youngsters.”
Here’s how researchers suggest lead be taken from water:
- Flush the pool within the pipes – a short lived fix.
- Replace a building’s individual plumbing fittings or system.
- The most feasible? Put and keep filters on taps.
Saff has lead testing kits, and he’d like to give them away – to homeowners or to school officials.
“They’re soaking in my office,” he was quoted saying.
