{"id":17335,"date":"2019-07-26T02:09:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T02:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17335"},"modified":"2019-07-27T15:08:40","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T15:08:40","slug":"lead-based-paint-found-in-half-of-all-inspected-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/lead-based-paint-found-in-half-of-all-inspected-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead-based paint found in half of all inspected schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marilynne R Wood<\/a>, University of Toledo<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

With all the emphasis that has been placed on making sure children are safe<\/a> from the hazards of lead-based paint at home, similar efforts would seem just as important for America\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n

After all, outside of the home, young children spend the majority of their day \u2013 6.8 hours a day<\/a> \u2013 at school.<\/p>\n

Yet a new federal report<\/a> found that an estimated 15.2 million children in the U.S. go to schools in school districts that found lead-based paint. This is happening more than 40 years after the United States\u2019 1978 ban<\/a> on the use of lead-based paint in housing.<\/p>\n

For years, as a nursing professor and parent educator<\/a> who specializes<\/a> in treating children with elevated lead levels, I have worked to identify children with lead poisoning and to help parents make their homes lead-safe.<\/p>\n

Lead, breathed in or ingested, can affect children\u2019s brain development<\/a> and result in reduced \u201cintelligence quotient,\u201d or IQ.<\/p>\n

Failure to inspect<\/h2>\n

The report, released June 24 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, highlighted how many school districts \u2013 72% \u2013 are not even inspecting their buildings for lead-based paint hazards. The Government Accountability Office restricted its analysis to school districts that had at least one school built before 1978, and those that obtained drinking water from a public water system.<\/p>\n

Among the 12% that do inspect for lead hazards, more than half found them. That raises questions about what amount could be found in the remaining 88% of schools that aren\u2019t looking.<\/p>\n

Lead was more frequently found in large school districts \u2013 51% of the time versus 8% for other districts, according to the report. There could be a number of reasons for these results. These larger districts may have older school buildings, or they may be in larger cities that lack the money to keep schools in a good state of repair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Parents unaware<\/h2>\n

The report also reveals that school districts often don\u2019t notify parents or school board members about lead inspection results.<\/p>\n

Specifically, 58% of school districts did not notify parents of their findings and 46% did not tell school board members, according to the report. Fifty-nine percent didn\u2019t tell the media, the report states.<\/p>\n

To make an impact on lead hazards in America\u2019s schools, there needs to be transparency. As one who has worked directly with lead-poisoned children, I find it interesting how often there is an emphasis on making sure students have things like technology<\/a> to make sure children learn. The same emphasis needs to be placed on making sure schools are free from hazards, such as those posed by lead-based paint, that threaten children\u2019s ability to learn.\"The<\/p>\n

Marilynne R Wood<\/a>, Professor, University of Toledo<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marilynne R Wood, University of Toledo With all the emphasis that has been placed on making sure children are safe from the hazards of lead-based paint at home, similar efforts would seem just as important for America\u2019s schools. After all, outside of the home, young children spend the majority of their day \u2013 6.8 hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":17332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[1737,6530,2277,6714],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17335"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17338,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17335\/revisions\/17338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}