Mother getting kids tested after revelation of high lead levels in school field

Parents of children at Weston School worry about whether high levels of lead in the soil at the school might have impacted their children's health and at least one mother plans to get her kids tested.

Donnalynn Bousquet's seven children have all gone to the school, and her 11-year-old daughter still attends. She has a doctor's appointment next week for her daughter and 14-year-old son to get their blood tested.

Lead is a neurotoxin and can affect brain development in children. Bousquet says some of her children have experienced some problems, like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression.

"I guess what I'm really waiting for is those tests, and if those tests have any kind of lead in them at all, someone's going to have to answer. I'm not going to be satisfied with the Band-Aids," she said.

The school put fencing around the field Thursday as a precaution after the release of test results from 2007 that showed 19 of the 22 samples taken from the field contained levels of lead contamination that exceeded national guidelines for human health protection.

CBC News reported Thursday testing done on soil in parts of Point Douglas and several other Winnipeg neighbourhoods in 2007 and 2008 showed potentially dangerous levels of lead.

School officials issued a notice to parents, telling them the risk of exposure to lead in the soil was low because it only enters the body if its swallowed or inhaled. The school plans to re-open the field next week after laying down additional sod.

Bousquet says that's not enough.

"That's a school field, dust is being lifted, they're doing track and field, dust is being lifted, the wind blows, dust is being lifted," she said.

Jodie Sontag's four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son play in the field, and she said she was shocked to learn that the government knew there were high levels of lead in the soil, but never informed the public.

"We just want to know what's going on and I definitely want to know why it's not been brought to light before yesterday. Especially when you have two little kids," she said.

The school on Logan Avenue is located 280 metres from the site of a now-closed smelter.

Shirley Thompson, an associate professor in the National Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba, says parents like Bousquet and Sontag have good reason to be concerned.

"Especially considering Weston is an elementary school," she said. "Students do play in soil. Young children will even eat soil."

Thompson says the school should either remove the contaminated soil, or put a liner down over the soil as a barrier.  

A provincial government spokesperson says there are limited opportunities for lead exposure because concrete, wood chips or sod covers most of the school field. Children can reduce their risk by washing their hands before meals or snacks.

The results of the tests were detailed in a draft report dated July 2009 and a near-identical draft dated in 2011 that were obtained by CBC News. Neither draft report was ever publicly released by the then NDP government.

The acceptable level of lead in soil is 140 parts per million. The average contamination level of the soil in the tests done in 2007 at Weston School was 463 ppm. One sample had 1,130 ppm.