"Lead in Drinking Water"
Back in the '60s, a Pulitzer prize-winning scientist described the problem
of childhood lead poisoning as "so well defined, so neatly packaged
with both causes and cures known, that if we don't eliminate this social crime,
our society deserves all the disasters [it has coming]."
Well, "We have the knowledge to redress this social crime.
We know where the lead is, how people are exposed, and how it damages health.
What we lack is the political will to do what should be done."
Unfortunately, "many policy makers consider the costs of action
primarily in economic and financial terms
and ignore the costs of inaction on human health and communities' livelihoods."
"At this point, most Americans have heard of the avoidable and abject failure
of government on the local, state, and federal level"
in fact across the board, "to prevent the mass poisoning
of hundreds of children and adults in Flint, Michigan."
"A government plan to save some money had led public officials
to switch the city's water source from [one of the Great Lakes] to the Flint River,"
the past sewer of the auto industry.
Flint citizens "complained that their tap water was foul and discolored."
But "officials took no heed." I wonder why.
Officials failed to act for eighteen months, "until a local pediatrician revealed
dramatically elevated lead levels in children's blood."
An investigation didn't just find fault but highlighted seeming falsification
of water quality results to keep people in the dark.
Though "the specific breed of alleged government corruption"
may be unique to Flint, "the end result might not be so rare in the USA—
home to an ageing water system."
As the president of the Children's Health Fund has said,
"Pandora's box is now wide open."
Flint may only be "the tip of an enormous iceberg,"
potentially "one of a great many icebergs."
In addition to lead paint and the residual lead everywhere from leaded gasoline,
lead can leach from lead pipes, solder, or fixtures.
Recognized to be a health issue in the U.S. back in 1845,
a year our flag only had 26 stars,
yet the use of lead in water pipes and solder was not restricted
until the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendment, 141 years later.
Was the city you're living in built before 1986?
Today "the exact number of lead water pipes currently in use is not clear,"
about 1 in 3 cities surveyed shrugged their shoulders.
There are anti-corrosion chemicals you can add to tap water
to try to keep the lead in the pipes.
Flint could have done that, but it could have cost about $100 a day.
Now they only have to pay a billion dollars.
Let me close with a quote from the heroic pediatrician
who blew the whistle, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
She was asked, "What advice would have for other physicians
taking on a whistle-blower role?" She replied, "This is our job.
This is why we went to medical school—to help people."