More and more states throughout the country are mandating that all childcare facilities/homes be tested for lead in their drinking water.

Even if your state does not require you to test your daycare’s drinking water, you should have it tested anyway. Water testing is fairly inexpensive and can help provide you and the parents of your children with piece of mind.

Why it’s Important

Lead poisoning has the largest impact on young children.

Each year in the United States, 310,000 1- to 5-year-old kids are found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, which can lead to a wide range of symptoms, from headaches and stomach pain to behavioral problems and anemia. Lead also can negatively impact a child’s developing brain, result in severe health problems and even death. Watch a video to learn more about the importance of the issue.

Is your Daycare’s Water Safe?

It’s impossible to tell what the lead levels are in your daycare’s water without having it tested by a certified laboratory.

The highest risk childcare facilities/homes are ones built before 1986. The reason is that the EPA banned using lead pipes and materials to distribute water in 1986. So, any childcare facility/home that was built before 1986 is at the highest risk for having lead present in its drinking water.

How to Test

First you’ll want to determine the number of drinking water sources (water fountains, sinks) within your daycare.

• Less than 10 water sources: Sign up for water testing kits (one per water source) and we’ll send you a water testing kit with instructions to sample your water and send it into the laboratory for analysis – https://www.tapwaterwatch.com/product/water-test-kit
• More than 10 water sources: Register to have trained water samplers come to your daycare and collect water samples and bring them to the laboratory for analysis – https://www.tapwaterwatch.com/test-my-school/