31 Jan Toxic lead in school drinking water
It’s that time of year again when our children go back to school and it got me thinking about a study I quoted in my book “292 schools in NSW were found to have up to 12 times the maximum level of lead in their drinking water” (Mc Dougall and Bissett, 2008). When you consider that lead poison prevention groups urge people to flush their water for a minute or two first thing in the morning after the water has been sitting in the pipes overnight, can you imagine how much lead has been leaching from the pipes and faucets in a school as a result of six weeks of holidays? Lead is one of the most toxic metals a child can be exposed to. In light of the recent announcement by the World Health Organisation that it is considering halving the acceptable blood levels of lead in children (from 10 to 5 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood), more needs to be done to assess the drinking water in our schools. Read more.