Oakland parents and community activists called on school officials Wednesday to adopt a policy that ensures students have access to safe drinking water, an outcry spurred by test results showing faucets at seven school sites had high levels of lead.
“We’re talking about the water in schools being dangerous to our kids,” said Vien Truong, an Oakland mother whose child is in kindergarten.
“We know we have pipes that are very old.” Test results released to The Chronicle last week showed that taps at seven Oakland schools dispensed water with lead levels higher than the 15 parts per billion allowed under federal guidelines.
“This is an emergency,” Sylvester Hodges, a former school board member, said at a news conference in City Hall.
Representatives of the consumer rights group CalPIRG and other activists called on the district to replace all pipes and fixtures that contain lead, which could include any plumbing installed before 2010.
They also asked for filters on drinking water taps and regular testing for lead.
Torres said she’d like to follow the example set by the San Diego school district, where officials limit lead levels to a maximum of 5 parts per billion rather than the 15 set by federal guidelines.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that school water contain less than 1 part per billion of lead, said Jason Pfeifle, a CalPIRG health advocate.
Lead is a toxic metal that can cause irreversible neurological and brain damage, including lowering a child’s IQ, said Dr. Noemi Spinazzi, a pediatric physician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
San Francisco found three school sites with elevated levels of lead, including one water fountain in the San Francisco International High School gym that had 860 parts per billion.