Abstract
BackgroundPublic drinking water can be an important source exposure to lead, which can affect children’s cognitive development and academic performance. Few studies have looked at the impact of lead exposures from community water supplies or their impact on school achievements. We examined the association between annual community water lead levels (WLLs) and children’s academic performances at the school district level.MethodsWe matched the 90th percentile WLLs with the grade 3–8 standardized test scores from the Stanford Education Data Archive on Geographic School Districts by geographic location and year. We used multivariate linear regression and adjusted for urbanicity, race, socioeconomic characteristics, school district, grade, and year. We also explored potential effect measure modifications and lag effects.ResultsAfter adjusting for potential confounders, a 5 μg/L increase in 90th percentile WLLs in a GSD was associated with a 0.00684 [0.00021, 0.01348] standard deviation decrease in the average math test score in the same year. No association was found for English Language Arts.ConclusionsWe found an association between the annual fluctuation of WLLs and math test scores in Massachusetts school districts, after adjusting for confounding by urbanicity, race, socioeconomic factors, school district, grade, and year. The implications of a detectable effect of WLLs on academic performance even at the modest levels evident in MA are significant and timely. Persistent efforts should be made to further reduce lead in drinking water.
Highlights
Public drinking water can be an important source exposure to lead, which can affect children’s cognitive development and academic performance
Urbanicity and Geographic School Districts (GSD) Socioeconomic Status (SES) characteristics vary by district and year, while student racial composition and student SES characteristics vary by district, year and grade
14.177 1.745 227 a The test scores are standardized on the national level, the standardized scores for Massachusetts do not center at 0 b Economically disadvantaged students in Massachusetts are defined as students who are participating in one or more of the four state-administered programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Transitional Assistance for Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC), the Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) foster care program, and MassHealth (Medicaid)
Summary
Public drinking water can be an important source exposure to lead, which can affect children’s cognitive development and academic performance. Few studies have looked at the impact of lead exposures from community water supplies or their impact on school achievements. We examined the association between annual community water lead levels (WLLs) and children’s academic performances at the school district level. Developing brains of children are vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of lead. Exposure to even low levels of lead shows evidence of long-term damage to children’s cognitive function and IQ [4,5,6,7,8,9,10], and children’s academic performance [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], with implications for future academic and career achievements [19, 20].
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