Some of our children are being
poisoned right before our eyes,
but none of us can see it and the
children can't taste it. Worst of all,
it's happening at our schools.
Good evening I'm Pat Callahan
and I'm Amanda hill.
We're talking about lead in the water.
According to the Environmental
Protection Agency and the US CDC.
Even at low levels,
lead can cause central and
peripheral nervous system damage,
learning disabilities,
shorter stature,
impaired hearing and impaired formation,
and function of blood.
The EPA says no level of lead is safe
because of these health effects on kids,
and that's why Maine now requires
every K through 12 school in our state
public or private to test for lead.
That testing in Maine schools finishes today,
Chris Costa has been digging into this
story and joins us now to explain Chris
well. Patton, Amanda the main CDC just
released the latest results today.
It says it has data from just over
half of the schools in the state,
53% so they're actually offering an
extension for schools to submit their data.
Now take a look at this map.
This map shows how each of those schools
that they have the data from is tested.
Those yellow dots mean the average
level of lead across every fixture,
fountain and faucet in the school
is within the state's safe range
of up to four parts per million.
The red dots mean the average level of
lead is higher than 15 parts per billion.
And that's the case at Pine Street School,
in Presque Isle,
that's where Theo Feinberg goes to school.
He and his family are living
through this again.
They just moved to Maine a few
months ago after leaving Newark, NJ.
Where Theo got lead poisoning after
drinking lead contaminated water there.
Imagine knowing that you turn your tap
on and that first draw of water is
where the lead is most concentrated.
Most of the time. So every morning
I was giving him a glass of poison.
He was two. A parent's nightmare.
Can you imagine waking up knowing
that you had for six months,
poisoned your child unknowingly?
Danielle Feinberg had no idea her
New Jersey home was contaminated
with lead in the water.
I still feel so much shame and like.
I know I had no control.
But I feel so much shame that I
couldn't protect him effectively.
Now living in Presque Isle,
she's living this ordeal again.
Her son Theo goes to Pine
Street Elementary school.
It's one of the dozens of schools
across Maine with levels of
lead in water that are above
the state's safe threshold.
If you don't know you can't fix it.
That's why Maine State Senator Rebecca
Millett proposed a bill in 2019 requiring
all public and private K through 12
schools in the state to test for lead.
That bill became law testing
started in October of 2021.
The main CDC makes those test
results for every faucet,
fountain and fixture in a school
building available to the public online.
The main CDC considers a level
of four parts per billion.
A level of concern.
Before this,
we didn't know what was out there.
Need to know where it exists and
this will give us a really good
picture of the entire playing field.
The latest test results show
schools with levels in certain
fixtures in the hundreds and even
thousands of parts per billion,
but there's an important caveat.
It represents the worst case scenario.
That's because there are two types of tests.
A first draw test where staff let water
sit in pipes for at least 8 hours and
then test those first 250 milliliters.
That usually leads to
results with high numbers.
There's also a follow up flush test.
That's where staff run the water in a fixture
for about 30 seconds and then test it.
That flush test helps figure out
where the lead is coming from.
It's closer to what students
would consume while at school.
Remember the main CDC said four parts per
billion was the level of concern more
than one in every 4 fixtures in main
schools had a level of four or above.
In the town of Milford,
doctor Lewis S Libby School is
the only school in the district
I, at first was pretty shocked,
and as you can see underneath
the sink here you can see the
new valves that were replaced.
Facilities director Adam Moore
says almost half of the school's
fixtures needed to be replaced.
Locking off those fixtures
and getting right to work.
Replacing them became his top priority.
While we're all the food
is prepared right here,
this is the first thing.
So if their food's getting lead
put into it because of being.
Foster Rinser cooked in it and
then the kids are eating it.
Just as bad as them drinking
it right out of the fountain.
It's a lot for parents to see
their kids go off every day,
and they're trusting us to make
sure that they're safe and healthy.
The district also applied for and
received federal funds to fix
those lead contaminated fixtures.
That money helped offset the
thousands of dollars it cost.
That's something that we couldn't in clear.
Conscience weighed on, you know,
budget budgets aside, we need to
make sure that we have water in the
building for our staff and students.
But larger districts have higher costs,
I couldn't imagine.
In Lewiston, every school in
the district had multiple unsafe
fixtures and the large population
of parents who do not speak English.
There had another wrinkle in
understanding this problem.
Number one on the high.
No. I panicked and then I thought
about the child's life and all the
problems that I saw and because
it's risking the child's whole life
and it was very scary. Yeah, new
Mainers Public Health initiative into
executive director Hibo Omer says
the lead problem is more pervasive
in poorer communities because
of our circumstances.
Circumstances we see the school as a safe
haven and hearing that broke my heart.
The social determinant of health
is real because many people
live in homes that are leaded.
They're paying a lot of price for it,
and they're not aware of the
problems that those lead paint can.
Goes to the children.
Doctors in Maine now must screen
for lead poisoning in kids ages
one and two before it was only
recommended if the child showed signs.
The 2019 law made it a requirement. This is
a process we were familiar with,
but we were falling behind.
We weren't testing enough children. Doctor
Genevieve Whiting is a pediatrician
with Maine Medical Partners and the
secretary of the main chapter of
the American Academy of Pediatrics.
She says the new testing requirement is good,
but has some limitations, but that really
only identifies the children who
are already being exposed to lead
the problem. There are no treatments to
reverse the effects of lead exposure.
Health impacts like drops in IQ in attention.
Hyperactivity and aggressive behavior.
Testing of school drinking
water fills a needed gap.
Our school aged children
were not routinely testing,
and so if they're having ongoing exposure
past that one and two years of age,
we may not identify it.
We're not screening those children,
so we don't find when there are
clusters of elevated lead levels
that relate to an exposure,
like through a school.
So finding that source is crucial.
If you remediate it in that
one place those hundreds or
even thousands of children.
Benefit from it,
but the law does not require schools
to fix any of the unsafe LED fixtures.
Why? Because Senator Mullett said that
costs money and funding those fixes
requires either 2/3 of each chamber
approving the requirement or funding
more than 90% of the cost of remediation.
Our hope is that once a district tests
and receives any concerning results,
they'll do what is best for
students and educators,
Millett wrote in an email.
It's not enough to hope that something
must be done until somebody does something.
Danielle Field, like schools,
must be required to fix any unsafe
fixtures, saying it could prevent
thousands of kids from needing
special education, like Theo does.
It is crushingly lonely.
It is crushingly lonely,
especially in the early stages
because we couldn't go to play dates.
When we went to the park,
we had to leave after 15 minutes
because he'd be melting down and
none of it is his fault and he has
with the appropriate services that
I think every single child that has
been led affected should receive.
He has grown to be a wonderful kind,
sweet little boy,
but he really needed the help.
So as we mentioned,
the main CDC is giving schools an
extension to submit those initial results.
A spokesperson says so far 53% of those
schools have submitted at least one result.
74% have requested the test kits.
Now the agency reported a high influx
of samples in recent weeks that's
causing a bit of backlog at the lab.
Now parents, if you go to our website,
you'll find a link to the latest round
of testing for the fixtures in every
school that has submitted results so far.
Pat and Amanda.
Chris Costa. Thank you.