Some fountains and sinks at the University of New Brunswick have been turned off after water showed unsafe levels of lead.

Students and faculty at the Fredericton campus received an email Tuesday saying some water tests had come back showing higher than acceptable lead levels. UNB is expected to have more concrete results by Thursday or Friday.

Cristin Muecke, the area's public health officer, said unsafe levels of lead pose a risk to everyone, but especially to children.

"Lead in any form can, in quantities over a long period of time, primarily cause effects on the nervous system," she said.

"Symptoms like headache, fatigue and that sort of thing. Particularly of concern among children is the intellectual development — there can be intellectual delays."

Some UNB students live on campus with their children.

Muecke said the public health department has been involved with the UNB situation. She said lead in water generally comes from lead pipes or lead solder used before the 1990s.

UNB declined to speak to CBC News on camera. It said it would only comment when conclusive results were in later this week and when the university community was informed.

Students unsure what's safe

Nursing student Alysha Manderson said her class has talked about the water, and she's not sure which water is safe and which is is risky.

"They usually have the out-of-service signs upstairs and they said downstairs was fine. I don't know if it is or not."

St. Thomas University, just up the hill from UNB, has six new fountains with have lead-reducing filters, but officials are testing again after the UNB results.

"About half our buildings are new, half have been here a while, so what we're going to do is take samples this morning and get … them tested," said spokesman Jeffrey Carleton. "We'll go from there based on the results."