Lead is often lurking in the fountains and faucets our kids drink from every day at schools across Vermont. And right now, there is no mandate for schools to test for it. Proactively removing lead fixtures and plumbing and testing for lead in drinking water is the only way we can know for sure that our schools and childcare centers are providing safe water.
Our kids shouldn’t have to play a dangerous game of chance every time they drink from a fountain in their school. Where there is lead, there is a risk of lead poisoning.
“Governor Scott has clearly recognized the urgent need to protect Vermont’s children from lead poisoning from drinking water,” said Jen Duggan, Vice President and Director of CLF Vermont. “Our children, teachers, and school workers are at risk of being exposed to lead as we speak, and we cannot wait any longer to fix this problem.”
Schools and childcare centers – places where children spend so much time – can have unsafe levels of lead in their water, putting our kids’ health at risk. To ensure safe water, it’s time for parents and teachers to demand that schools test their water for lead and take measures necessary to protect the health of schoolchildren.
Joan Valk, a Family Support Specialist at Child Family Services in New Hampshire, sees the terrible impact of lead poisoning on children and families every day.
If your home was built before 1978, it’s essential to the health of your family that you ask an important question: Will my home improvement project disturb lead-based paint?
“We think schools should be proactive and addressing this issue now to ensure that the drinking water that they’re providing to their children is safe,” says attorney Tom Irwin of the Conservation Law Foundation, which lobbied for the new law.
“Because this is one of Vermont’s vulnerable populations, we need to prioritize safe drinking water in schools,” Jen Duggan, director of Conservation Law Foundation Vermont, said in an interview Thursday.
Schools and childcare centers – places where children spend so much time – can have unsafe levels of lead in their water, putting our kids’ health at risk. To ensure safe water, it’s time for parents and teachers to demand that schools test their water for lead and take measures necessary to protect the health of schoolchildren.
For the past four years, Tom Irwin has talked to countless people about the tragedy of childhood lead poisoning. Especially before the Flint crisis put lead issues back in the headlines, he often would be met with the incredulous response, “But haven’t we solved that problem already?” It’s a fair question, says Irwin, director of… Continue reading Stopping Childhood Lead Poisoning
