Goodnight Mom

When I mailed off a free lead water test from New York City, I expected the results to say what most other Forest Hills parents had reported: no lead detected. Instead, one of our samples came back at 27 parts per billion (ppb). We had been drinking that water every day. A few weeks earlier, I’d read a Facebook post on the local Forest Hills Parents group about testing lead levels in water. A few people commented that they had discovered 2 or 3 parts per billion (ppb) of lead in their water, but most of the comments were from people who had taken the test and found no lead. I learned New York considers anything above 5 parts per billion worth addressing. I thought it might be a fun at home experiment to do with Max, so I ordered the free NYC Lead Water Test Kit. I naively  thought the “kit” would be some kind of litmus paper or dye we just pop into a glass of water. (I don’t know how science works).  Turns out, we had to fill two big plastic jars with water from the kitchen ta...