Contaminated water at schools
By Bruce McDougall and Kelvin Bissett
The Daily Telegraph
September 08, 2008 12:01am
292 schools found to have unsafe drinking water
High lead levels
Parents not aware of problem
BOTTLED water and filtering costing $150,000 a month is being provided to hundreds of public schools across New South Wales after tests found lead levels at nearly 12 times safe maximum levels in their water supplies.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal recorded lead contamination levels were worse than those publicly confirmed last year when this newspaper first reported the scare.
At Gresford Public School in the Hunter Valley there were recorded lead levels of 0.118 milligrams per litre, documents released under Freedom of Information show.
The National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines state drinking water lead levels should not be higher than 0.01 milligrams per litre.
At Numeralla Public School near Cooma levels of .106 were recorded and at Jerrys Plains Public School, in the Hunter there was a .084 reading.
Ebenezer Public School recorded levels of .029. Cawdor and
Bottled or filtered water is being provided at 292 schools as a result of lead content results recorded by NSW Health. All the schools had bubblers linked to rainwater tanks.
Most are in regional areas or on urban fringes.
High lead levels can lead a series of health problems, including neurological damage, affecting IQ.
Some 110 schools are getting bottled water, 182 have had filtration installed, 16 have been linked to town water and two will be connected later this year.
Up to the end of April, $2,383,652 had been spent on bottled water and filtering, up from $2,219,882 in March.
Professor Jack Ng from the National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology, said last night water with lead levels above .03 or .04 should "definitely be avoided".
Professor Ng said lead blood levels above 15-20 micrograms per 100ml of blood was linked to a reduction in IQ of between two and five points.
"Have they done any blood tests?" he asked.
A NSW Health spokesperson said it had not tested students.
Meanwhile, parents at Gresford Public School said no information had been given about the lead results.
Renee Russell, whose six-year-old son, Harmon, is in Year 1 at Gresford Public School, said she was concerned.
She said that at the start of the year, students had been told to bring a bottle of water to school each day.
Ms Russell said she was under the impression the bottles were required simply so children would not get attack on an Afghan army base overnight.
