Lead Contamination Found in Child Development Center
By Maxime Leonard
Two sinks tested positive for lead in the City College Child Development Center on Ocean Campus.
Sinks in the child care center were tested without warning by the state of California.
The topic was brought up in the Facilities Committee meeting on October 28 by Maria Salazar-Colón, claiming that while parents of children were notified, employees were not. “No one notified the workers that there was lead found in the water, that’s inappropriate,” Salazar-Colón said in the meeting. “It puts the workers in danger [and] it puts the children in danger.”
The realization of the state’s inconspicuous presence also raised concerns at the Facilities Committee Meeting about unauthorized individuals being able to enter the childcare center.
The sinks were tested on August 19, although there were originally no plans to test the sinks considering the current bungalows the childcare center resides in were built after 2010.
The sinks were tested as a precaution, and two sinks had lead levels higher than the standard, according to Akiyo Mineo-Aldis, the head caretaker in the child development center.
The bungalows in which the child development center resides were originally built with 200 bungalows but later moved to where the soccer field currently resides before its current location behind the library and next to the football field. Nathan Garcia told Mineo-Aldis that bungalows 215 and 216 were built in 2016 or 2017, meaning they did not need to be tested.
Child Development Department chair Rosario Villasana and Facilities Committee Chair Alberto Vasquez did not respond to requests for comment on the results of the tests.
As soon as lead contamination was confirmed, parents were swiftly notified, and both sinks had their water supply turned off and taped off to prevent them from being used until they could be replaced. A bright yellow pamphlet was handed out to parents warning of the dangers of lead around children, and parents were encouraged to get testing done at the doctor’s office. The pamphlet was two-sided, with one side written in English and the other in Mandarin.
At the time of publication, both sinks in question have already been replaced. After they were replaced, staff in the childcare center were instructed to run both taps for 30 seconds, four times a day, for three weeks.
As of Dec. 9, the childcare center was in its final week of running the faucets before a secondary lead test could be conducted to ensure the problem had been resolved.
While Mineo-Aldis was concerned about the kids, she was not concerned about getting tested herself. Parents who tested their children for lead all reported back clean results.
Mineo-Aldis also noted that these tests and procedures are standard preventative maintenance and should not be indicative of the quality of facilities in the child development center.
As of 2018, California has had an amendment to a health and safety code around lead exposure in childcare centers stating that “A licensed child day care center… that is located in a building that was constructed before January 1, 2010, shall have its drinking water tested for lead contamination levels on or after January 1, 2020, but no later than January 1, 2023, and every five years after the date of the initial test.”