"This report shows that many children in Pennsylvania are exposed to significant environmental hazards in their school buildings."
"PITTSBURGH—Many Pennsylvania school districts have detected lead and other contaminants in their drinking water and documented problems with mold and radon in school buildings—but not all of them removed the hazards, according to a new report.
The report, published this month by the Pittsburgh-based health advocacy nonprofit Women for a Healthy Environment, looked at testing and cleanup practices for environmental health hazards including lead and other contaminants in drinking water; lead in paint and dust; radon; and mold in a randomized sample of 65 public school districts serving about 175,000 students across the state.
That's a small sample size—Pennsylvania's K-12 education system has about 500 school districts, so it represents about 10% of total school districts—but among the schools sampled, the report found that testing and cleanup procedures for environmental hazards are not performed consistently or uniformly as the state still lacks legal requirements."
Kristina Marusic reports for Environmental Health News August 27, 2021.
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