Borough presidents want NYC to provide bottled water, other measures at schools testing high for lead.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams joined the city’s other borough presidents in a letter to NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, urging the Department of Education (DOE) to take “immediate action” regarding elevated levels of lead in the drinking water at some New York City public schools.
Children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure because harmful effects occur at lower exposure levels in children than in adults.
The “vast majority” of test results were not elevated, according to DOE.
Some local schools that were found to have elevated levels of lead in one or more of their fixtures include P.S.
8 in Brooklyn Heights (four out of 89 water samples), P.S.
29 in Cobble Hill (one out of 73 samples); Automotive High School in Bedford Stuyvesant (31 out of 144 samples); P.S.
They also want schools to offer free lead exposure testing for kids, install water filtration systems to prevent future contamination, and implement lead testing on a regular basis.
“Parents can rest assured that water in schools is safe for students and staff to drink, and there is no need for bottled water,” DOE spokesperson Toya Holness told the Brooklyn Eagle.
“New York City’s drinking water is of the highest quality and the water delivered from the upstate reservoir system is lead free,” she said.