Officials from New Jersey's Newark Public Schools system have shut down water fountains in 30 school buildings after finding lead concentrations in the taps to be above federally-recognized safe limits.
Of the 300 samples they took from 30 buildings during routine annual testing, 59 tested above 15 parts per billion — the level that's federally-recognized as safe.
According to the Associated Press, officials have announced that the contamination does not pose any serious health risks, and has not been found in the city's drinking water. But out of caution and guidance from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the school will not switch the taps back on until they do further testing, monitoring, and analysis.
The school has brought in other sources of drinking water — water coolers and bottled water — and concerned parents can set up a free blood test for their children.
This situation comes on the heels of a growing concern over unsafe levels of the toxic metal in the drinking water, which has recently erupted into a costly crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Lead is one of the most egregious toxic metals that can enter the human body. While it sickens people of all ages, young children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies absorb four to five times as much as adults.
For this reason, the CDC has warned that there are no safe levels of lead exposure for children. According to the World Health Organization, lead exposures contribute to 600,000 new cases of intellectual disabilities in children each year. (Children are exposed to lead not only through water, but also through contaminated dust and lead paint, which was banned decades ago but still covers the interior walls of many old houses.)
And the problem is not only in New Jersey and Flint. Unsafe lead levels have popped up in the tap water of many cities across the US, the New York Times reports, including Washington, D.C., Durham and Greenville, N.C., Jackson, Miss., and Sebring, Ohio. It's also been found in several cities across Michigan, including Grand Rapids, Jackson, Detroit, Saginaw, Muskegon, Holland, and many others, according to The Detroit News.
During the Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan on March 6, both Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders spent much of the time discussing the strong need for federal and state level action to address the issue.
