NC Schools May Soon Be Required To Test For Lead

Lead contamination has been a hot topic nationally in the wake of the Flint, MI, water crisis. Under a new bill that is in the process of moving forward in the North Carolina House, schools and child care centers would be required to test their drinking water for lead.

House Majority Leader Mike Hager, a Republican, sponsored the bill that could be on the House floor for a vote very soon, according to The News and Observer.

“We have to make sure our children are protected when they’re in school,” Hager said last month before a House committee gave the bill its unanimous approval.

Under Hager’s bill, both schools and child care centers would have to test multiple drinking fountains and sinks throughout their facilities next year. A state public health agency would then have to review water samples. Results would have to be posted and sent to parents and guardians of children.

If any water sources exceed the federal limits, the school or child care facility would be required to immediately find alternate water, The News and Observer reported.

“A lot of states are talking about doing this right now, but we would be the first state to actually have a full blown school and childcare lead testing program in place in the United States,” Tom Reeder, assistant secretary of the environment for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said in an interview with WNCN.com.

Sponsors of the bill said that “municipalities are already required to conduct lead testing,” and while schools are grouped into those results, they now want to take a closer look at what children in schools are being exposed to.

“I think it’s incumbent on the state and the county health systems to ensure that our children as we educate them, are in safe environments and their drinking water I think has got to be paramount,” Representative Charles Jeter, a bill sponsor, told WNCN.com.

According to WRAL.com, Hager was “inspired” to put forth the idea of the measure after reading a USA Today report that detailed U.S. EPA data showing high levels of lead in drinking water found in schools across the nation, including several in North Carolina.

Ed Norman, manager of the Department of Health and Human Services' childhood lead poisoning prevention program, told lawmakers that his agency tests about 150,000 children a year for high levels of lead in their blood.

"We focus primarily on 1- and 2-year-olds," Norman told WRAL.com. "We do see more than 1,000 children a year with elevated exposures."

Under the bill, the state would pay for the water testing. Right now, Hager said, there is no systematic testing regimen for schools.