Posted on 09/12/2021 5:01:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
Summer is winding down, and while students and teachers may be ready to resume classroom sessions, the school buildings themselves may not be prepared.
And it has nothing to do with COVID.
Throughout the country, schools are suffering from aging infrastructure, especially when it comes to water pipelines. Cities like Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, are well aware that lead made their drinking water toxic. But this problem isn’t limited to those two cities.
A recent study conducted by the Pittsburgh-based health advocacy nonprofit Women for a Healthy Environment found 91 percent of Pennsylvania schools that tested their drinking water detected lead. No amount of lead is safe for children to consume. Lead leads to developmental issues including learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Despite detecting the lead, only 9 percent of schools took steps to eliminate the lead from their tap water lines.
Similarly, a study conducted by the North Carolina Division for Public Health found nearly one in 10 of the state’s child care centers and schools had unsafe levels of lead meaning as many as 20,000 children were exposed to unsafe levels. For that study, only tests exceeding lead measurements of 15 parts per million or more were included, but as noted, no level of lead exposure is safe for children.
In California, nearly one in five schools had at least one drinking fixture that was contaminated with lead. In Washington D.C., three separate elementary schools had elevated lead levels.
While it could be easy to judge these schools, at least they took the steps to identify the problem. The same cannot be said for every state.
In Massachusetts, testing the water for lead is not required in schools. Any testing done is voluntary. One report from the Harvard School of Public Health found only 511 schools, roughly one-third, voluntarily tested the water. Of those, 248 detected high levels of lead. More than half of the 248 schools that detected lead did not report to the state their plans to fix the lead problem. Because, again, this was all voluntary.
When a school does detect lead in its drinking water and decides it cares enough about the students to do something, there are two options: replace the pipes or shut off the fountains. One option is clearly cheaper than the other.
As for the expensive option, there is money set aside in the pending federal infrastructure bill to replace lead pipes throughout the country. This will cost an estimated $55 billion. The current legislation, however, has not been signed into law. If it is, it will take time for the money to be distributed and for the pipeline replacements to take place.
In California, nearly one in five schools had at least one drinking fixture that was contaminated with lead. In Washington D.C., three separate elementary schools had elevated lead levels.
While it could be easy to judge these schools, at least they took the steps to identify the problem. The same cannot be said for every state.
In Massachusetts, testing the water for lead is not required in schools. Any testing done is voluntary. One report from the Harvard School of Public Health found only 511 schools, roughly one-third, voluntarily tested the water. Of those, 248 detected high levels of lead. More than half of the 248 schools that detected lead did not report to the state their plans to fix the lead problem. Because, again, this was all voluntary.
When a school does detect lead in its drinking water and decides it cares enough about the students to do something, there are two options: replace the pipes or shut off the fountains. One option is clearly cheaper than the other.
As for the expensive option, there is money set aside in the pending federal infrastructure bill to replace lead pipes throughout the country. This will cost an estimated $55 billion. The current legislation, however, has not been signed into law. If it is, it will take time for the money to be distributed and for the pipeline replacements to take place.
Cheaper solution. Install water coolers.
The DC lead water problem was known 40 years ago when Amy Carter was attending.
Gonna have to address fluoridated water as well.
Laced?
Solder in copper pipes?
“The cheap option — turning off the drinking fountains — will work, but kids still need to have water throughout the day.”
So her solution is to give kids water from chemical-laden plastic bottles?
Maybe they could raises property taxes?
That won’t necessarily fix the problem.
But it’s a good excuse to raises taxes.
So they’ve been testing the paint but not the water?
SOLUTION...
Homeschool. Not only is the water poisoned, but the curriculum too.
Dems get in by agitating minor crises. Then they loot the treasury and turn the minor crisis into a major crisis.
It’s a Communist conspiracy. Ever see a Communist drink tap water Mandrake? …I only drink grain alcohol and rain water…”
Does anyone pay taxes in Flint?
So the education system can blame lead for the dumbing down and not their lazy union a##es and political activism instead of the three r’s
First it was non friable asbestos now it is lead pipes. What is next?
I and my entire family attended an asbestos laden lead pipe infested brick school (probably radon laced) school. I am here, 76 in two days. Our home had lead piping. There was asbestos visually present around steam pipes. I am certain we had radon gas too. Another created problem.
Probably few.
The rest comes from everyone residing in other states?
They’ve had decades to correct this situation.
When the issue came up again in recent years ..I must admit I was surprised..I thought it had been mostly fixed in the 70s-80s?
That’s the part where people start to wonder where all the taxes..including state and local taxes go?
It’s sort of like the trillions for infrastructure when Osama supposedly had did a overhaul on the infrastructure the EIGHT years he occupied the WH.
Sounds like propaganda to me. The tipoff is the statement that no amount of lead is safe.
Do nothing for years.
Now.
$55 Billion, $3.5 Trillion.
Whatever. It’s for the children!
Bring your own bottled water.
The chlorine is a disinfectant. Usually twice a year water departments will flush their lines and add extra chlorine. This is done to get chlorine throughout the distribution system.
Are they talking about galvanized pipes? They aren’t lead.
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