The lead in schools crisis - and yes, it is a crisis - demands a real commitment on the part of New Jersey leaders to keep children's bodies safe as we nurture their minds.
If a gun-wielding assassin were allowed to roam free in a Garden State school, parents would respond with horror, grief and outrage - and rightly so. The outcry would be immediate and loud.
But a less visible killer is stalking our state's youngest and most vulnerable residents, and the response has been far less dramatic.
A report last year found that at least 136 school districts in the state had high levels of lead in the fountains their students drink from every day.
The findings, published by the nonprofit New Jersey Future and compiled from data submitted by the schools themselves, were not exhaustive. But they helped shine a spotlight on many districts across New Jersey that reported at least one source of contamination.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states unequivocally that no safe blood level of lead in children has been identified, and higher levels can cause neurological damage and other serious health problems.
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Studies show the devastating effects lead has on the developing brains of children, including cognitive damages, memory loss and learning disabilities.
So what is the state doing in response to this public-health emergency? Precious little, advocates charge.
"We need to actually fix the source of lead in our schools and our homes by removing lead from our environment," Doug O'Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, said at a news conference last week at the State House annex.
It's not enough to identify the problem, although that's a critical first step, O'Malley and others believe. All the reports in the world, all the good intentions mean nothing if unsafe levels of toxins remain a looming presence in the schools.
Lead poisoning is real, and it's here.
In the past decade and a half, tests on more than a quarter of a million children in New Jersey have indicated high levels of lead in their blood - more than 3,500 of them just last year.
While most of the cause has been linked to peeling lead paint in older houses, attention has lately shifted to the schools, where youngsters spend the greater portion of the waking hours.
State Assemblywoman Liz Muoio (D-Mercer) is among the sponsors of a bill that would require schools not only to test for lead, but also to take steps toward remediation.
Clearly, closing our eyes tight and hoping the situation will disappear is not the answer. Depending on bottled water, as Camden schools have been doing since 2002, is not a sustainable response.
The crisis - and yes, it is a crisis - demands a real commitment on the part of our leaders to keep our children's bodies safe as we nurture their minds.
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