CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tests show water fixtures at 41 of Charlotte-Mecklenburg 89 oldest schools had unsafe levels of lead, and officials say those fixtures have been removed, blocked off or filtered as soon as the high levels were detected.
The Charlotte Observer reports the school system has completed a second round of testing to identify drinking fountains and other school water sources leaching unsafe levels of lead.
Lead is toxic, especially for young children and pregnant women. There's no safe level for it.
Most of the more than 3,000 fixtures tested within safe levels. Those schools not tested yet among the system's 175 schools were generally built after Congress banned lead in water pipes, fixtures and solder in 1986.