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By Dr. Linda Lemasters

On December 2, 2015, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a summary report on safe and unsafe blood lead levels in the children of Flint, Michigan.  Children with elevated lead levels more than doubled after a change in water sources.  At some point in Flint’s very public discussion, school leaders, teachers, and parents began to ask questions about the safety of the water supply in the schools their children attend.  Alas, the data were not as one would hope; the Flint situation should be a wake-up call for facility managers of schools, daycares, and other public buildings children frequent across the U.S.

There are schools across the nation that must test for lead levels and other toxins, poisons, and bacteria in the water.  Those are schools not on public access water supplies.  Schools, however, on municipal and other public water lines are not required to test their water.  This inconsistency leaves many children at risk, especially in older buildings or in situations in which water is used only sporadically and sits for long periods of time in the older pipes.

Just what are the risks of lead tainted water supplies?  Dr. Jay Schneider, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University, very clearly laid out the risks of lead consumption by children in an article in Popular Science by Alexandra Ossola:

One thing is constant, however:  lead is toxic, and if it makes its way into the still-developing brains of young children, many of the effects can be permanent.  Lead can change how signals are passed within the brain, how memories are stored, even how cells get their energy, resulting in life-long learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and lower IQs.  (Schneider, in Ossola, 2016)

As we learn more about lead and its effects on the brain, even down to these molecular levels, if anything it’s even more dangerous than we thought.  It can really change the programming of the brain, which will have considerable effects on subsequent behavioral and brain function.  (Schneider, in Ossola, 2016)

While I do not want to sound an alarm—I believe that has been accomplished by others—I do want to bring two questions to the reader’s attention:

  1. How do we go about getting water tested in all schools across the U.S., no matter what the water source is?
  2. What research plans do we have to find solutions for the children who already have experienced lead poisoning?

The first question seems simple enough.  The testing of water sources is relatively inexpensive, with little training required for the person obtaining the samples.  Even without federal and state requirements to test water, localities should be able to finance such tests.  Testing does expose another question as well.  Are many of the schools and facilities that would tend to have lead problems in the poorer neighborhoods and communities?

According to the research (Waxman & Thompson, 2016), counties reporting in 2014 on at least 1,000 children with poverty rates at or above the national average, 5% or more of these children had elevated blood lead levels.  With only 26 states reporting, 47 counties have the same problems as Flint.  This research reveals that the problem is more prevalent in poorer communities and the exposure is at astonishing rates.  Advocates for funding lead testing need to be found from private sources or the states.  Lead testing also may be a burden that more fiscally able communities could share.

Much of the research supports the idea that there is some level of danger of lead consumption by children, especially those children with nutritional deficiencies.  The research on the harmful levels of lead in children, however, is mixed at best, with the experts often disagreeing.  Some researchers contend there are no negative effects of low level, short-term lead exposure on children.  Other studies found that there are mental difficulties experienced by children, with little hope of solutions for the pediatric difficulties.  In addition, it is often difficult for researchers to separate and control the variables for research, which would provide significant results one way or the other.

This brings us to the second question.  What research plans do we have to find solutions for the children who already have experienced lead poisoning?  By way of this blog, I am calling on researchers and funding sources to consider this as a priority.  Not only should we assure that all children have clean water—at school, at home, wherever they go—we also need to find assistance for those children who already have been exposed.

References:

Hanna-Attisha, M., LaChance, J., Sadler, C., & Schnepp, A. C.  (2016, February). Elevated blood lead levels in children associated with the flint drinking water crisis:  A spatial analysis of risk and public health response.  American Journal of Public Health Research, 106(2), pp. 283-290.  Downloaded on May 23, 2016 from http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.2015.303003

Ossola, A. (2016, May 17).  Lead in Water:  What are the health effects and dangers?  The water in Flint, Michigan could affect children permanently.  Popular Science. Downloaded on May 17, 2016 from http://www.popsci.com/lead-water-what-are-health-effects-dangers

Seewer, J. (2016, April 9). Water with unsafe lead amounts found in hundreds of schools. AP, The Big Story.  Downloaded on May 17, 2016 from http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7ba3df3a85df46ed9c8feeaa1bf14c4f/water-unsafe-lead-amounts-found-hundreds-schools

Shell, E. R. (2016, March 22).  Flint’s lead-laced water may not cause permanent brain damage in children. Scientific American.  Downloaded May 17, 2016 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flint-s-lead-tainted-water-may-not-cause-permanent-brain-damage/

Taking Action of Flint Water.  Downloaded on May 17, 2016 from http://www.michigan.gov/documents/snyder/FWATF_FINAL_REPORT_21March2016_517805_7.pdf?20160523121255

Waxman, E., & Thompson, M. (2016, April 16).  Poor nutrition leaves kids vulnerable to lead poisoning—no just in Flint.  Urban Wire:  Food and Nutrition.  Downloaded May 18, 2016 from http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/poor-nutrition-leaves-kids-vulnerable-lead-poisoning-and-not-just-flint

More information may be found on the Education Facilities Clearinghouse website:  www.efc.gwu.edu 

Linda Lemasters, Director, Education Facilities Clearinghouse

Linda is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development of The George Washington University.  Her areas of expertise and research include educational planning, facilities management, and women CEOs.  She actively conducts research concerning the effects of the facility on the student and teacher, publishes within her field, and has written or edited numerous books including School Maintenance & Renovation:  Administrator Policies, Practices, and Economics and book chapters including a recent chapter, Places Where Children Play, published July, 2014 in Marketing the Green School:  Form, Function, and the Future.

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Koo, Kim, and Hong, 2014

Since the increase in greenhouse gas emissions has increased the global warming potential, an international agreement on carbon emissions reduction target (CERT) has been formulated in Kyoto Protocol (1997). This study aimed to develop a framework for the analysis of the low-carbon scenario 2020 to achieve the national CERT. To verify the feasibility of the proposed framework, educational facilities were used for a case study. This study was conducted in six steps: (i) selection of the target school; (ii) establishment of the reference model for the target school; (iii) energy consumption pattern analysis by target school; (iv) establishment of the energy retrofit model for the target school; (v) economic and environmental assessment through the life cycle cost and life cycle CO2 analysis; and (vi) establishment of the low-carbon scenario in 2020 to achieve the national CERT. This study can help facility managers or policymakers establish the optimal retrofit strategy within the limited budget from a short-term perspective and the low-carbon scenario 2020 to achieve the national CERT from the long-term perspective. The proposed framework could be also applied to any other building type or country in the global environment.

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Mahoney, 2015

Current trends for primary public school design do not account for the psychological effects everyday stress and trauma have on the ability for students to effectively learn. Set design standards and regulations efficiently disregard designing to alleviate student stress and for child-, community-, demographic-, and age- centered environments in order to foster learning for all students. The aim of this thesis is to define the principal architectural concepts responsible for the creation of a child focused primary school environment integrated with the specific elements needed for the mitigation of everyday stress and trauma on the student.

The relevance and limitations of current primary school design trends will be addressed to situate the discussion of designing schools to mitigate the effects of mental or emotional strain or tension on students. Typically, children are less able to cope with these situations leading to a state of mind ‘turned off’ to learning. A primary school designed for the student needs to respond to the emotional needs of the student while providing a positive first impression of learning. By defining the spatial qualities needed to address the effects of everyday stress and trauma combined with how to design for children and the critique of current design trends, this thesis will present the final design aims and methods for providing an urban, public school for the downtown Cincinnati area meant to mitigate the effects of everyday stress and trauma on students in order to promote learning through the built environment.

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Iyer-Raniga et al., 2015

The impact of climate change and adaptation pose huge challenges to the built environment. Educational institutions in particular, are faced with not just management of their built assets, but also future proofing their assets from a climate change and adaptation perspective as well as a learning and teaching perspective. While there are recent examples of educational institutions joining the wave of building iconic Green Star buildings across Australia, there still remains the question of whether the physical building, facilities management and occupancy patterns provide realistic triple bottom line (TBL) outcomes. Very little post occupancy studies, if any, are undertaken particularly capturing key experiences to further improve future new building development and refurbishment. Using the experience of an iconic building that has won numerous awards in Australia, this paper captures the learning from the perspective of educational institutions as owner-occupiers of built assets. A case study was undertaken using a mixed method research approach. Interviews were undertaken with the project team, both internal and external to the educational institution, complemented by post occupancy evaluation (POE) examining energy and water use of the building. In addition, a Building User Satisfaction survey was also undertaken. While the data set was evaluated using various frameworks, this paper focuses on the role of the management style in ensuring TBL sustainability outcomes. The paper highlights the importance of senior management support in achieving TBL outcomes and presents some guidelines for other educational institutions wanting to future proof their assets.

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Asmar, Chokor, and Sroui, 2014

Balancing energy performance and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) performance has become a conventional tradeoff in sustainable building design. In recognition of the impact IEQ performance has on the occupants of educational facilities, universities are increasingly interested in tracking the performance of their buildings. This paper highlights and quantifies several key factors that affect the occupant satisfaction of higher education facilities by comparing building performance of two campuses located in two different countries and environments. A total of 320 occupants participated in IEQ occupant satisfaction surveys, split evenly between the two campuses, to investigate their satisfaction with the space layout, space furniture, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting level, acoustic quality, water efficiency, cleanliness and maintenance of the facilities they occupy. The difference in IEQ performance across the two campuses was around 17% which lays the foundation for a future study to explore the reasons behind this noticeable variation.

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Kanters, et al., 2014

BACKGROUND: Partnerships between school districts and community-based organizations to share school facilities during afterschool hours can be an effective strategy for increasing physical activity. However, the perceived cost of shared use has been noted as an important reason for restricting community access to schools. This study examined shared use of middle school facilities, the amount and type of afterschool physical activity programs provided at middle schools together with the costs of operating the facilities.

METHODS: Afterschool programs were assessed for frequency, duration, and type of structured physical activity programs provided and the number of boys and girls in each program. School operating costs were used to calculate a cost per student and cost per building square foot measure. Data were collected at all 30 middle schools in a large school district over 12 months in 2010-2011.

RESULTS: Policies that permitted more use of school facilities for community-sponsored programs increased participation in afterschool programs without a significant increase in operating expenses.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest partnerships between schools and other community agencies to share facilities and create new opportunities for afterschool physical activity programs are a promising health promotion strategy. Keywords: school facilities; afterschool physical activity; school facility costs.

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Flores, et al., 2015

It is the major purpose of this study to determine the difference on the attitude between high and low performing Junior Marine Engineering students towards the School facilities and services. Descriptive type of research was utilized in the study. Result showed that the Marine Engineering students are at their best in morning subjects but they don’t care what their schedule is for as long as they finished all subjects on schedule. The low performing students prefer only the teachers do the talking and they like to simply listen to the teachers compared to the high performing students. It is recommended that putting some variety in the usual lecture-demonstration method of teaching into student-centered approach of learning would give better atmosphere of gaining knowledge and comprehension applicable for diverse learning styles of the students.

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National Center for Environmental Health

Protecting children from exposure to lead is important to lifelong good health. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. And effects of lead exposure cannot be corrected. The most important step parents, doctors, and others can take is to prevent lead exposure before it occurs.

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2015

Lead is a naturally occurring metal used in the production of fuels, paints, ceramic products, batteries, solder, and a variety of consumer products. The use of leaded gasoline and lead based paint was eliminated or restricted in the United States beginning in the 1970s, resulting in substantial reductions in exposure to lead. However, children continue to be exposed to lead due to the widespread distribution of lead in the environment. For example, children are exposed to lead through the presence of lead-based paint in many older homes, the presence of lead in drinking water distribution systems, and current use of lead in the manufacture of some products.

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CDC, 2013

Elemental lead is a soft, malleable, dense, blue-gray metal that occurs naturally in soils and rocks. Lead is most often mined from ores or recycled from scrap metal or batteries. Elemental lead can be combined with other elements to form inorganic and organic compounds, such as lead phosphate and tetraethyl lead. Lead has a variety of uses in manufacturing: storage batteries, solders, metal alloys (e.g. brass, bronze), plastics, leaded glass, ceramic glazes, ammunition, antique-molded or cast ornaments, and for radiation shielding. In the past, lead was added to gasoline and residential paints and used in soldering the seams of food cans. Lead was used in plumbing for centuries and may still be present.

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