{"id":302,"date":"2018-02-21T18:28:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T02:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/?p=302"},"modified":"2018-02-21T18:28:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T02:28:54","slug":"toxic-water-widespread-lead-contamination-threatens-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/2018\/02\/21\/toxic-water-widespread-lead-contamination-threatens-health\/","title":{"rendered":"TOXIC WATER: Widespread Lead Contamination Threatens Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
Insider Comment: \u00a0Sadly, Project Censored does NOT discuss Primary Water . . . WHY? \u00a0We must continue to inform everyone that we do NOT have a water shortage . . We do have intentionally poisoned water! \u00a0Primary water is clean and new water. \u00a0Please learn the water facts go to\u00a0www.PrimaryWater.org<\/a>\u00a0– do not be deceived learn the truth and how we can get clean new and safe drinking water. .<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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TOXIC WATER: \u00a0Widespread Lead Contamination Threatens Children\u2019s Health, and Could Triple Household Water Bills \u2013 The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2016-2017 . . .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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#1 Widespread Lead Contamination Threatens Children\u2019s Health, and Could Triple Household Water Bills<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In December 2016, M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer of Reuters reported that nearly three thousand neighborhoods across the US had levels of lead poisoning more than double the rates found in Flint, Michigan at the peak of its contamination crisis. Blood tests showed that more than 1,100 of those communities had rates of lead contamination \u201cat least four times higher\u201d than had been found in Flint.<\/p>\n

In January 2016, President Obama had declared a federal emergency in Flint, based on lead contamination of the city\u2019s water supply. In that case, corrosive river water leached lead from old pipes; as a result, 5 percent of the children screened in Flint had high blood lead levels. By comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 2.5 percent of all US children under the age of six\u2014approximately 500,000 children\u2014have elevated blood lead levels. (The CDC defines five micrograms per deciliter as its threshold for elevated blood lead levels in children up to age six. In 2012, the CDC lowered this threshold from ten to five micrograms to reflect medical consensus that even low levels of lead exposure can do permanent harm to children.)<\/p>\n

In early 2016, Flint\u2019s lead-contaminated water featured prominently and frequently in the news; however, news about the health plight of Flint\u2019s residents quickly peaked, and it never emphasized the full scope of the issue. Unlike Flint, the \u201clead hotspots\u201d identified in Pell and Schneyer\u2019s report have received \u201clittle attention or funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pell and Schneyer wrote that the communities affected by lead poisoning \u201cstretch from Warren, Pennsylvania . . . where 36 percent of children tested had high lead levels, to . . . Goat Island, Texas, where a quarter of tests showed poisoning. In some pockets of Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia, where lead poisoning has spanned generations, the rate of elevated tests over the last decade was 40 to 50 percent.\u201d Across the US, they reported, \u201clegacy lead\u201d\u2014which includes not only leached lead from faulty plumbing but also crumbling paint and industrial waste\u2014continues to thwart national efforts to eradicate childhood lead poisoning.<\/p>\n

As part of a special series of investigations on lead poisoning across the US, titled \u201cUnsafe at Any Level,\u201d Pell and Schneyer requested testing data at the neighborhood level from all fifty states. Their focus on census tracts and zip code areas allowed them to identify neighborhoods \u201cwhose lead poisoning problems may be obscured in broader surveys,\u201d such as those focused on statewide or countywide rates.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one states responded with data, allowing Pell and Schneyer to identify 2,606 census tracts and 278 zip code areas with rates of lead poisoning at least double Flint\u2019s rate. (Pell and Schneyer reported that some states\u2019 health departments did not have the data, or did not respond to records requests, while other states would not share the data they did have. The twenty-one reporting states are home to about 61 percent of the US population.) Interactive maps embedded in their December 2016 report detail their findings for census tracts and zip code areas in the cities of St. Joseph, Missouri; Milwaukee; South Bend, Indiana; Cleveland; Baltimore; Fresno; Los Angeles; and Buffalo. As one expert, Dr. Helen Egger, chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center\u2019s Child Study Center, told Pell and Schneyer, \u201cThe disparities you\u2019ve found between different areas have stark implications . . . The national mean doesn\u2019t mean anything for a kid who lives in a place where the risks are much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, just eleven US states, plus Washington, DC, mandate blood lead tests for all children; some other states mandate tests for children in areas with known exposure risks. But even in states that require testing, Schneyer and Pell reported, \u201cmore than half the children were missing a test.\u201d The \u201csweeping\u201d testing gap they documented in their June 2016 report leaves children \u201cvulnerable to prolonged lead exposure, among the most insidious, and preventable, early health risks. Lead poisoning can lead to a lifetime of severe mental and physical ailments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0World Health Organization has linked<\/a>\u00a0lead exposure to children\u2019s physical ailments\u2014including anemia, kidney dysfunction, and high blood pressure\u2014and developmental issues\u2014such as impaired peripheral nerve function and decreases in growth, hearing, and IQ. \u201cBy school age,\u201d Schneyer and Pell wrote, \u201cchildren with a history of lead exposure can exhibit poor attention and impulse control, with lower intelligence and academic performance\u2014a stigma that can follow them through life.\u201d Their article quoted Dr. Morri Markowitz, director of the lead poisoning program for the Children\u2019s Hospital at Montefiore in New York City: \u201cThe lower your IQ, the more trouble learning, the more likely you are to drop out of school, to be delinquent, to be incarcerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2017, Schneyer and Pell\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that, based on their previous investigation, \u201cFrom California to Pennsylvania, local leaders, health officials and researchers are advancing measures to protect children from the toxic threat. They include more blood-lead screening, property inspections, hazard abatement and community outreach programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Farron Cousins reported for DeSmogBlog in January 2017, \u201cLead pipes are time bombs\u201d and water contamination is to be expected. The US relies on an estimated 1.2 million miles of lead pipes for municipal delivery of drinking water, and much of this aging infrastructure is reaching or has exceeded its lifespan. Citing Pell and Schneyer\u2019s December 2016 Reuters report, Cousins characterized Flint as \u201cjust a tiny piece in a much larger story\u201d about a US water crisis characterized by both contamination\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0lack of affordability.<\/p>\n

Declaring this the \u201cEra of Infrastructure Replacement,\u201d in 2012 the American Water Works Association\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0that a complete overhaul of the nation\u2019s aging water systems would require an investment of $1 trillion over the next twenty-five years, which could triple the cost of household water bills. As Cousins reported, a\u00a0Michigan State University study<\/a>, conducted by Elizabeth A. Mack and Sarah Wrase and published in January 2017, found that, \u201cwhile water rates are currently unaffordable for an estimated 11.9% of households, the conservative estimates of rising rates used in this study highlight that this number could grow to 35.6% in the next five years.\u201d (11.9 percent equates to 13.8 million US households; 35.6 percent would amount to 40.9 million households.) As Cousins concluded, \u201cWhile the water contamination crisis will occasionally steal a headline or two, virtually no attention has been paid to the fact that we\u2019re pricing a third of United States citizens out of the water market.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May 2017,\u00a0Democracy Now!<\/i>\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that thousands of homeowners in Flint, Michigan, were facing tax liens and ultimately foreclosures if they failed to pay outstanding water bills, despite the fact that officials acknowledge that Flint\u2019s water is still unsafe to drink without a filter.<\/p>\n

Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell, \u201cUnsafe at Any Level: Millions of American Children Missing Early Lead Tests, Reuters Finds,\u201d Reuters, June 9, 2016,\u00a0http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/special-report\/lead-poisoning-testing-gaps\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer, \u201cOff the Charts: The Thousands of U.S. Locales Where Lead Poisoning is Worse Than in Flint,\u201d Reuters, December 19, 2016,\u00a0http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/special-report\/usa-lead-testing\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Farron Cousins, \u201cAmerica is Suffering from a Very Real Water Crisis That Few are Acknowledging,\u201d DeSmogBlog, January 24, 2017,\u00a0https:\/\/www.DeSmogBlog.com\/2017\/01\/24\/america-suffering-very-real-water-crisis-few-are-acknowledging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Student Researchers:<\/b>\u00a0Jessie Eastman and Allison Kopicki (North Central College)<\/p>\n

Faculty Evaluator:<\/b>\u00a0Steve Macek (North Central College)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Insider Comment: \u00a0Sadly, Project Censored does NOT discuss Primary Water . . . WHY? \u00a0We must continue to inform everyone that we do NOT have a water shortage . . We do have intentionally poisoned water! \u00a0Primary water is clean and new water. \u00a0Please learn the water facts go to\u00a0www.PrimaryWater.org\u00a0– do not be deceived learn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hot-topics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}