Water for Schools

Over the last decade, the drinking water at thousands of schools across the country has been found to contain unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins.

An Associated Press investigation found that contaminants have surfaced at public and private schools in all 50 states — in small towns and inner cities alike.

But the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied.

“It’s an outrage,” said Marc Edwards, an engineer at Virginia Tech University who has been honored for his work on water quality. “If a landlord doesn’t tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail. But we have no system to make people follow the rules to keep school children safe?”

The contamination is most apparent at schools with wells, which represent 8 to 11 percent of the nation’s schools. Roughly one of every five schools with its own water supply violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency analyzed by the AP.

In California’s farm belt, wells at some schools are so tainted with pesticides that students have taken to stuffing their backpacks with bottled water for fear of getting sick from the drinking fountain.

Experts and children’s advocates complain that responsibility for drinking water is spread among too many local, state and federal agencies, and that risks are going unreported. Finding a solution, they say, would require a costly new national strategy for monitoring water in schools.

Health Effects

Lead is a toxic metal that is harmful to human health. Lead has no known value to the human body. The human body cannot tell the difference between lead and calcium, which is a mineral that strengthens the bones. Like calcium, lead remains in the bloodstream and body organs like muscle or brain for a few months. What is not excreted is absorbed into the bones, where it can collect for a lifetime.

Young children, those 6 years and younger, are at particular risk for lead exposure because they have frequent hand-to-mouth activity and absorb lead more easily than do adults. Children’s nervous systems are still undergoing development and are therefore more susceptible to the effects of toxic agents. Lead is also harmful to the developing fetuses of pregnant women.

No safe blood lead level in children has been determined. Lead can affect almost every organ and system in your body. The most sensitive is the central nervous system (brain), particularly in children. Lead also damages kidneys and the reproductive system. The effects are the same whether it is breathed or swallowed. Low levels of lead in blood (those below 10 ug/dL) have been associated with reduced IQ and attention span, learning disabilities, poor classroom performance, hyperactivity, behavioral problems, impaired growth, and hearing loss. Very high blood lead levels (70ug/dL or greater) can cause severe neurological problems such as coma, convulsions, and even death. The only method to determine a child’s lead level is for them to have a blood lead test done by a health provider.

The degree of harm from lead exposure depends on a number of factors including the frequency, duration, and dose of the exposures(s); and individual susceptibility factors (e.g., age, previous exposure history, nutrition, and health). In addition, the degree of harm depends on one’s total exposure to lead from all sources in the environment—air, soil, dust, food, and water. Lead in drinking water may be a significant contributor to overall exposure to lead, particularly for infants whose diet consists of liquids made with water, such as baby food or formula.

  Ogo Water Technologies Pakistan provide Water Purification System for Schools & Institutions. Contact Us for More Details and Inquiries at