More Schools Testing For Lead As Parents Demand Information

As concerns grow about tainted water in older buildings, school officials face pressure to test for lead and to release the results. In New York City, a new round of testing reveals that 83 percent of schools have at least one outlet with a lead level above the safety threshold.

The Washington Post: Facing Pressure, More Schools Scramble To Confront Dangers Of Lead In Water

Tests last summer showed troubling levels of lead in the water at Summit Township Elementary School, perched on a quiet hilltop outside Butler, Pa. But for the next five months, no one told the parents of Summit’s 250 students. When officials alerted families to the potential lead contamination in January, the dominoes fell quickly. (Dennis, 4/30)

The New York Times: Most New York City Schools Had High Lead Levels, Retests Find

Last year, with fears about lead poisoning running high in the wake of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., New York City officials said that they had tested the water in all the city’s public schools and that the results should be reassuring: Only 1 percent of outlets had lead levels above the Environmental Protection Agency’s action level of 15 parts per billion. (Taylor, 4/28)

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