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For this mini project, we were tasked with having to neighborhoods in Philadelphia affected by led poisoning. Our group chose Strawberry Mansion, a well known neighborhood located in North Philadelphia. From our findings, what was most surprising was the fact that 21% of children living there were affected up to 5 micrograms. To know the scale is rather high in other locations, it was just odd it was so low here. Another odd thing I found, was there was more ‘positive’ news for led found in our neighborhood. There was even a website to explain exactly the issue there, at Strawberry Mansion, and how they’re ‘relieving’ the problem.

Our group read about a school called Watson Comly that is located in Northeast Philadelphia. This school has had at least 38 reports about the high levels of lead in the school which is a big problem. Lead poisoning can affect anyone but it mostly affects children, it can slow down their learning skills. A kid named Dean Pagan that went to Watson was found with high blood-lead levels which caused permanent brain damage. To think that this is happening alot in Philadelphia is scary because we could be affected too. I live in Germantown and there are so many lead reports here because of how old the houses are. This is something that needs to be addressed more so the problem could be fixed. Why is this not something we address more and fixed?

My group and I read up on the school of Watson Comly which is somewhere that has had 38 reports of high lead levels. However, from doing this assignment, I have not only learned about other schools in Philly that are full of lead in paint, but also the damages that high levels of lead can cause. I didn’t know at all before this that Philadelphia was a place where such a thing was a problem, and it’s hard to believe that I didn’t know about this until now being it’s the city that I live in. I’ve known about many other problems in older buildings, like asbestos and just bad conditions in general; but I wonder if something like this is in my school, or in any of the schools that I have gone to and it just hasn’t been found yet?