Lead taints drinking water in hundreds of schools, day cares across USA

CreateTime:2016-03-22 Count:449

An analysis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data showed about 350 schools and day-care centers failed lead tests a total of about 470 times from 2012 through 2015.

But at this point it's impossible to know how big because the federal government requires only about 10% of the nation's schools and a tiny fraction of day cares — the 8,225 facilities that run their own water systems — to test for lead at all.

The EPA estimates that about 90,000 public schools and half a million child-care facilities are not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act because they depend on water sources such as municipal utilities expected to test their own water. That means parents have no assurance lead isn't seeping into children's water from a school building's pipes, solder or fixtures.

Source:USA TODAY

Copyright © | Bor S. Luh Food Safety Research Center  of Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2015