At some Portland schools, it's unsafe to drink the water or breathe the air

Parents in Portland, Ore., already angered that their children have been drinking water with a high lead content at school, learned late Wednesday that public schools throughout the district also have elevated levels of radon. It’s a double blow for the city, known for its eco-awareness and organic food.

District water tests conducted in March—but not reported until last week—showed elevated lead levels in 14 of 92 water sources at two Portland schools. Now, results from radon testing—also initiated in March—show that more than 100 of 800 school rooms tested have levels that exceed a standard that requires immediate follow-up testing.

Concerned about the public health crisis in Flint, Mich., parents at two Portland schools requested water testing. After The Oregonian reported results of those tests last week, parents started a petition to ask school superintendent Carole Smith to resign. They said the district should have disclosed test results sooner and questioned why students were allowed to continue drinking the water.

Parents are just learning of the radon concern, adding more fuel to criticism of the district for its response to lead levels. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and results in about 21,000 related deaths each year.

Superintendent Smith, speaking about the lead issue, told parents “this is not our protocol, this is not acceptable.” Schools placed bags over all water fountains district-wide and ordered nearly 1 million bottles of water for students through June 9, the end of the school year.

Hundreds of parents gathered at Rose City Park Elementary School on Wednesday, asking where they could get their children’s blood tested for lead and whether the amount of lead in the water was enough to cause health problems and brain damage, according to a report from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Consumption of any amount of lead is dangerous, said Jeffrey K. Griffiths, professor of public health and medicine at Tufts University, who chaired an EPA drinking water committee. He noted the toxin is especially dangerous to children’s brain function.

“If I was a parent in Portland and found out that there was information that revealed there were elevated levels of lead in water that my child might drink at school and we weren’t told about it and it wasn’t dealt with quickly, then I would be angry,” Griffiths said.

Across the nation, more than 2,000 water systems have lead levels exceeding EPA standards, according to a review by the USA Today Network. Many schools have aging infrastructure, making them vulnerable to high levels of lead, said James Montgomery, an associate professor in environmental studies at DePaul University and an expert on lead in the environment.

Among the 75 biggest water providers in the nation, Portland is the only one that has recently exceeded federal standards for elevated lead levels in the drinking water of high-risk homes, according to The Oregonian.

The tests done for radon focused on more than two dozen buildings that had high radon in 2001. The earlier testing contributed to the closure of a middle school. The EPA says radon can enter school buildings as it rises up through the soil and enters cracks and openings in foundations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.