By Peak Johnson

The Illinois House of Representatives recently passed legislation requiring that lead testing take place in both schools and daycare centers.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan passed the legislation after the Illinois Environmental Council located staggering levels of lead in many Chicago and suburban school districts.

The Chicago Sun Times reported that within the last year, “some Illinois schools have voluntarily tested drinking water for lead but state law does not require it, according to the attorney general.”

Madigan added that the tests will come to about $15 per drinking water sample and would provide information to schools “needed to quickly protect children from lead exposure.”

“Lead exposure can lead to serious and lifelong developmental problems for young children and infants,” Madigan told the Sun Times. “Many school districts in Illinois are already testing for lead in drinking water and have discovered alarmingly high rates of lead contamination. Testing drinking water in all Illinois schools and daycares is an inexpensive way to immediately identify and stop lead exposure in young children that would otherwise cost families, schools and government much more.”

The bill will require that all daycare centers and schools constructed before 2000 with pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classes test all water sources used for drinking or food preparation.

According to Madigan, it will also require “that inventory must be taken of all lead service lines in the state and public notification must be given of water main construction projects.”

This is not the only example of Illinois making strides with the countrywide issue of lead contamination.

In Chicago, work finally started to clean up yards that have been contaminated for years by toxic lead emissions from a factory in the Pilsen neighborhood, well after activists tested soil and located high levels of the metal.

To read more about the nation’s lead issues visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.