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Chalkbeat Indiana reports that more than two years ago, Lawrence Township Schools learned some of its water fixtures had lead levels as high as 182 times the federal bar for requiring intervention.

The fixtures were replaced, but parents are only now learning about their children’s potential exposure to such high levels of lead, according to the story, which included comments by IU McKinney Professor of Practice Janet McCabe.

"It is important to test children who are in high-risk areas for lead exposure, especially if they are younger than 6 years old — when the developing brain is particularly susceptible to the neurotoxin," she told Chalkbeat. Since any amount of lead in the body is detrimenta, as a parent, she would want to know if a water source had high levels of lead and have her child tested, she said.

 A former U. S. Environmental Protection Agency official, Professor McCabe is director of the IU Prepared for the Environmental Change Grand Challenge Initiative.

The issue of exposure of children to dangerous levels of lead was raised at a public forum co-sponsored by the NAACP on January 29 at IU McKinney School of Law, where a panel of physicians and health experts discussed steps that Indiana can take to improve screening and treatment options for lead poisoning.