While Ohio fights lead in drinking water, schools remain out of the loop

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — When it comes to lead in school drinking water, Ohio has no regulatory requirements or state laws. However, the state is working to keep Ohioans safe from lead exposure in other ways.

Gov. Mike DeWine announced millions of dollars will go to cleaning up lead in older homes, shelters, and daycares: $84 million is going to the Lead Safe Ohio project and Franklin County will be getting more than $5 million to address lead in older homes, shelters, and daycares.

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However, this money is not specifically targeting K-12 schools and a policy group said while this grant is a good step, more needs to be done.

“We evaluated the efforts that each state is taking or failing to take to stop this heavy toxic metal from getting into the water that our kids drink and unfortunately, we found that Ohio is still sitting at the back of the class,” Environment Ohio and Environment America Clean Water Director John Rumpler said.

The Environment America organization gave the state a failing grade because it does not have laws or regulatory requirements to address lead in school drinking water.

“Probably the single best thing that school districts can do is replace old fountains with water stations that are not made with lead and in fact have filters built in certified to remove lead,” Rumpler said. “They are funding important work to reduce other exposure pathways that affect our kids’ health, visa vie lead. It’s just that those grant programs don’t deal with lead in drinking water where our kids go to school every day and we’re just pointing out that’s an additional crucial place where we need to take stronger action.”

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The state is addressing lead issues in other areas. The Lead Safe Ohio program will include projects such as waterline, window and door replacement and lead cleaning.

“Typically kids that are higher risk zip codes are the ones that are at higher risk of developing some type of lead poisoning or lead toxicity,” Riverside Methodist Hospital Dr. Kennedy Ovenseri said.

Higher-risk zip codes include areas with older homes. Ohio Department of Health data shows that in 2022, more than 150,000 Ohioans under the age of 6 were tested for lead levels.

“If they’re below 3.5, typically we’re okay, right? There is, theoretically, no safe lead level, but there are ones that have higher associations with some of those complications,” Ovenseri said.

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More than 750 children showed levels above 10 µg/dL and almost 3,000 showed levels above 5 µg/dL in the 2022 results.

“You’ll notice that either kids that have had lead exposure may have lower IQs. And in terms of the worst thing that can happen, it can be like seizures, or just completely being totally out of it,” Ovenseri said.

More information on the Get the Lead Out report can be found by clicking here. Information for parents on lead can be found by clicking here.

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