Parents fear impacts of lead on children in northern B.C. schools: NDP
VICTORIA — A failed classroom experiment four years ago in northwestern British Columbia has spawned widespread concern from parents who fear their children face risks of lead poisoning from drinking water at their schools.
A science class in Kitimat was trying to raise salmon eggs in an aquarium in 2012 but the eggs kept dying, prompting water tests that found copper and lead, said a B.C. Centre for Disease Control report released Thursday by the Opposition New Democrats.
“Here, the death of the salmon eggs in a classroom aquarium triggered an investigation that found elevated levels of copper and lead in the school’s drinking water,” said the report, dated April 2014.
A district-wide investigation then found varied levels of lead and copper in drinking water in other schools.