2 school's well water contaminated with uranium

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http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng

Area: USA, State of Connecticut, Robert H. Brown Middle School and Kathleen Ryerson Elementary School, Madison


Unusually high levels of uranium found in the well water of two schools has forced officials to shut off drinking fountains and provide students with bottled water. School officials said they have been told the contamination is not harmful. "The state toxicologist said it shouldn't be a great concern; it's a non-problem as far as they are concerned," School Board Chairman Robert Hale said. Hale said the Robert H. Brown Middle School and Kathleen Ryerson Elementary School off Route 79 have been supplied with bottled water, which the schools will use for drinking and cooking until a solution can be found. The town tested the water after school officials received anonymous tips Oct. 28 that uranium had been found in the groundwater under nearby homes, Hale said. The town's other schools are not affected, Hale said, because they get water from Connecticut Water Co., which regularly tests for such contaminants. Test results that came back Thursday confirmed the presence of about 110 micrograms of uranium per liter (roughly parts per billion), according to a statement from School Superintendent David J. Klein. The federal Environmental Protection Agency's standard for water systems that serve homes is about 30 parts per billion, but there is no standard for schools. Water consumption levels in schools are typically much lower than in a home, officials noted. Uranium is found naturally in the environment, and the state Department of Public Health said it "would not expect to see adverse effects on people consuming the water from the Brown and Ryerson schools, and they do not see a need for medical follow-up," Klein said. Officials will hold a meeting tonight at 7 in the Brown Middle School auditorium for anyone with questions or concerns. According to a fact sheet produced by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, everyone is exposed to low amounts of uranium through food, air and water. It is a naturally occurring chemical substance that is mildly radioactive. High levels of exposure can cause kidney disease, the CDC said; it is not known to cause cancer, but can decay into other radioactive materials that may.

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1. Glad To See There Was No Risk.

First of all, it was naturally occurring uranium. Second of all, 110 ppb is still completely harmless, unless someone drank 2 liters of it a day over the course of their entire lifetime. Even then, the increased risk of cancer or other ailment would still be extremely small. But since it's a school and it is highly unlikely that any student there is drinking 2 liters of it a day, coupled with the fact that even if they did they wouldn't be going to school there long enough to consume enough over time, there's really zero risk to anyone with this.

But regardless, they obviously did the right thing by being proactive and should of course work to get it down to within the federal 30 ppb guideline.

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2. hello

your not late at all