On 12/16/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Looks like bullets are not the only way lead poisoning is killing Americans.
Wang writes: "For months, worried parents in Flint, Mich., arrived at their
pediatricians' offices in droves. Holding a toddler by the hand or an
infant
in their arms, they all have the same question: Are their children being
poisoned."
Flint, Michigan, resident Gladyes Williamson cries out through her tears,
overwhelmed with frustration over the water drawn from the Flint River.
(photo: Jake May /Flint Journal/AP)
In Flint, Michigan, There's So Much Lead in Children's Blood That a State
of
Emergency Is Declared
By Yanan Wang, The Washington Post
15 December 15
For months, worried parents in Flint, Mich., arrived at their
pediatricians'
offices in droves. Holding a toddler by the hand or an infant in their
arms,
they all have the same question: Are their children being poisoned?
To find out, all it takes is a prick of the finger, a small letting of
blood. If tests come back positive, the potentially severe consequences are
far more difficult to discern.
That's how lead works. It leaves its mark quietly, with a virtually
invisible trail. But years later, when a child shows signs of a learning
disability or behavioral issues, lead's prior presence in the bloodstream
suddenly becomes inescapable.
According to the World Health Organization, "lead affects children's brain
development resulting in reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioral
changes such as shortening of attention span and increased antisocial
behavior, and reduced educational attainment. Lead exposure also causes
anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity and toxicity to the
reproductive organs. The neurological and behavioral effects of lead are
believed to be irreversible."
The Hurley Medical Center, in Flint, released a study in September that
confirmed what many Flint parents had feared for over a year: The
proportion
of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood
has
nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to
using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014.
The crisis reached a nadir Monday night, when Flint Mayor Karen Weaver
declared a state of emergency.
"The City of Flint has experienced a Manmade disaster," Weaver said in a
declaratory statement.
The mayor - elected after her predecessor, Dayne Walling, experienced
fallout from his administration's handling of the water problems - said in
the statement that she was seeking support from the federal government to
deal with the "irreversible" effects of lead exposure on the city's
children. Weaver thinks that these health consequences will lead to a
greater need for special education and mental health services, as well as
developments in the juvenile justice system.
"Do we meet the criteria [for a disaster area]? I don't know," she told
Michigan Live. But Weaver doesn't think the city can receive the help it
needs without alerting federal officials to the urgency of the matter.
To those living in Flint, the announcement may feel as if it has been a
long
time coming.
Almost immediately after the city started drawing from the Flint River in
April 2014, residents began complaining about the water, which they said
was
cloudy in appearance and emitted a foul odor.
Since then, complications from the water coming from the Flint River have
only piled up. Although city and state officials initially denied that the
water was unsafe, the state issued a notice informing Flint residents that
their water contained unlawful levels of trihalomethanes, a chlorine
byproduct linked to cancer and other diseases.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, right, and City Administrator Natasha Henderson,
address questions about adding
supplemental phosphates to the city's water during a news conference in
December.
(photo: Jake May/Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)
Protesters marched to City Hall in the fierce Michigan cold, calling for
officials to reconnect Flint's water to the Detroit system. The use of the
Flint River was supposed to be temporary, set to end in 2016 after a
pipeline to Lake Huron's Karegnondi Water Authority is finished.
A petition lobbying for the ending the city's Flint River water supply
garnered 26,000 signatures.
Through continued demonstrations by Flint residents and mounting scientific
evidence of the water's toxins, city and state officials offered various
solutions - from asking residents to boil their water to providing them
with
water filters - in an attempt to work around the need to reconnect to the
Detroit system.
That call was finally made by Snyder (R) on Oct. 8. He announced that he
had
a plan for coming up with the $12 million to switch Flint back to the
Detroit system. On Oct. 16, water started flowing again from Detroit to
Flint.
David Murray, press secretary for Michigan governor Rick Snyder's office,
told The Washington Post that the state has been working on improving the
water quality in Flint and other cities for the past year. It has also
offered more than $10 million in financial assistance to pay for a
temporary
switch into the Detroit system while the connection to Lake Huron is being
prepared.
"Flint residents need to have access to safe, clean water," Murray wrote in
an email to The Post. "Gov. Snyder and the administration have been working
closely with the city to focus on health issues affecting children and
other
city residents, and address water infrastructure challenges."
He added that while Flint's water is currently safe to drink, "some
families
with lead plumbing in their homes or service connections could experience
higher levels of lead in the water that comes out of their faucets." An
action plan created by Snyder in October includes free water testing, free
water filters and the accelerating of corrosion controls in the drinking
water system, according to Murray.
For the parents of children who may have been affected, such actions were
accompanied by the sense that they had come too late.
These parents and other Flint residents filed a class-action federal
lawsuit
against Snyder, the state, the city and 13 other public officials in
November for the damages they have suffered as a result of the lead-tainted
water. The suit, which claims to represent "tens of thousands of
residents,"
alleges that the city and state officials "deliberately deprived" them of
their 14th Amendment rights by replacing formerly safe drinking water with
a
cheaper alternative that was known to be highly toxic.
As the Detroit Free Press reported in October, avoiding Flint water became
a
way of life for the city's residents.
Those who could afford it opted for bottled water, buying it by the
gallons.
Those who couldn't spare the money drank it straight from the tap all the
same, knowing that they would be paying for it later. When it came to
bathing, some slowly filled bathtubs with pots of boiled water for their
children.
LeeAnn Walters, a Flint resident and mother of 4-year-old twins, took every
precaution after blood tests revealed that the level of lead in one of her
sons had soared after the switch to Flint River.
"I was hysterical," Walters told the Free Press. "I cried when they gave me
my first lead report."
She had feared lead was the problem when her whole family developed rashes
and her son stopped gaining weight.
Now, Walters said, when her children experience problems as they grow up,
she will always wonder whether things would have been different - if their
lives would have been better - if it weren't for the water.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
valid.
Flint, Michigan, resident Gladyes Williamson cries out through her tears,
overwhelmed with frustration over the water drawn from the Flint River.
(photo: Jake May /Flint Journal/AP)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/15/toxic-water-so
aring-lead-levels-in-childrens-blood-create-state-of-emergency-in-flint-mich
/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/15/toxic-water-s
oaring-lead-levels-in-childrens-blood-create-state-of-emergency-in-flint-mic
h/
In Flint, Michigan, There's So Much Lead in Children's Blood That a State
of
Emergency Is Declared
By Yanan Wang, The Washington Post
15 December 15
or months, worried parents in Flint, Mich., arrived at their
pediatricians'
offices in droves. Holding a toddler by the hand or an infant in their
arms,
they all have the same question: Are their children being poisoned?
To find out, all it takes is a prick of the finger, a small letting of
blood. If tests come back positive, the potentially severe consequences are
far more difficult to discern.
That's how lead works. It leaves its mark quietly, with a virtually
invisible trail. But years later, when a child shows signs of a learning
disability or behavioral issues, lead's prior presence in the bloodstream
suddenly becomes inescapable.
According to the World Health Organization, "lead affects children's brain
development resulting in reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioral
changes such as shortening of attention span and increased antisocial
behavior, and reduced educational attainment. Lead exposure also causes
anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity and toxicity to the
reproductive organs. The neurological and behavioral effects of lead are
believed to be irreversible."
The Hurley Medical Center, in Flint, released a study in September that
confirmed what many Flint parents had feared for over a year: The
proportion
of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood
has
nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to
using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014.
The crisis reached a nadir Monday night, when Flint Mayor Karen Weaver
declared a state of emergency.
"The City of Flint has experienced a Manmade disaster," Weaver said in a
declaratory statement.
The mayor - elected after her predecessor, Dayne Walling, experienced
fallout from his administration's handling of the water problems - said in
the statement that she was seeking support from the federal government to
deal with the "irreversible" effects of lead exposure on the city's
children. Weaver thinks that these health consequences will lead to a
greater need for special education and mental health services, as well as
developments in the juvenile justice system.
"Do we meet the criteria [for a disaster area]? I don't know," she told
Michigan Live. But Weaver doesn't think the city can receive the help it
needs without alerting federal officials to the urgency of the matter.
To those living in Flint, the announcement may feel as if it has been a
long
time coming.
Almost immediately after the city started drawing from the Flint River in
April 2014, residents began complaining about the water, which they said
was
cloudy in appearance and emitted a foul odor.
Since then, complications from the water coming from the Flint River have
only piled up. Although city and state officials initially denied that the
water was unsafe, the state issued a notice informing Flint residents that
their water contained unlawful levels of trihalomethanes, a chlorine
byproduct linked to cancer and other diseases.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, right, and City Administrator Natasha Henderson,
address questions about adding
supplemental phosphates to the city's water during a news conference in
December.
(photo: Jake May/Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)
Protesters marched to City Hall in the fierce Michigan cold, calling for
officials to reconnect Flint's water to the Detroit system. The use of the
Flint River was supposed to be temporary, set to end in 2016 after a
pipeline to Lake Huron's Karegnondi Water Authority is finished.
A petition lobbying for the ending the city's Flint River water supply
garnered 26,000 signatures.
Through continued demonstrations by Flint residents and mounting scientific
evidence of the water's toxins, city and state officials offered various
solutions - from asking residents to boil their water to providing them
with
water filters - in an attempt to work around the need to reconnect to the
Detroit system.
That call was finally made by Snyder (R) on Oct. 8. He announced that he
had
a plan for coming up with the $12 million to switch Flint back to the
Detroit system. On Oct. 16, water started flowing again from Detroit to
Flint.
David Murray, press secretary for Michigan governor Rick Snyder's office,
told The Washington Post that the state has been working on improving the
water quality in Flint and other cities for the past year. It has also
offered more than $10 million in financial assistance to pay for a
temporary
switch into the Detroit system while the connection to Lake Huron is being
prepared.
"Flint residents need to have access to safe, clean water," Murray wrote in
an email to The Post. "Gov. Snyder and the administration have been working
closely with the city to focus on health issues affecting children and
other
city residents, and address water infrastructure challenges."
He added that while Flint's water is currently safe to drink, "some
families
with lead plumbing in their homes or service connections could experience
higher levels of lead in the water that comes out of their faucets." An
action plan created by Snyder in October includes free water testing, free
water filters and the accelerating of corrosion controls in the drinking
water system, according to Murray.
For the parents of children who may have been affected, such actions were
accompanied by the sense that they had come too late.
These parents and other Flint residents filed a class-action federal
lawsuit
against Snyder, the state, the city and 13 other public officials in
November for the damages they have suffered as a result of the lead-tainted
water. The suit, which claims to represent "tens of thousands of
residents,"
alleges that the city and state officials "deliberately deprived" them of
their 14th Amendment rights by replacing formerly safe drinking water with
a
cheaper alternative that was known to be highly toxic.
As the Detroit Free Press reported in October, avoiding Flint water became
a
way of life for the city's residents.
Those who could afford it opted for bottled water, buying it by the
gallons.
Those who couldn't spare the money drank it straight from the tap all the
same, knowing that they would be paying for it later. When it came to
bathing, some slowly filled bathtubs with pots of boiled water for their
children.
LeeAnn Walters, a Flint resident and mother of 4-year-old twins, took every
precaution after blood tests revealed that the level of lead in one of her
sons had soared after the switch to Flint River.
"I was hysterical," Walters told the Free Press. "I cried when they gave me
my first lead report."
She had feared lead was the problem when her whole family developed rashes
and her son stopped gaining weight.
Now, Walters said, when her children experience problems as they grow up,
she will always wonder whether things would have been different - if their
lives would have been better - if it weren't for the water.
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