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Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 332 posts

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#11
post #7
post #5

The article failed to explain how the river got so toxic in the first place.

The article also fails to explain what kind of safety checks are normally done on US drinking water, and why those tests failed in Flint.

I suspect none of that is explained yet because it is not yet known. Formally declaring "this is an emergency" is the first step in getting outside help, but I also imagine it's the first necessary step for starting an investigation into why it happened.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#13
post #5

The article failed to explain how the river got so toxic in the first place.

Problem is the pipes, not the river per se. When they switched water, they didn't add an anti corrosive agent:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/11/13/af...

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#15
post #3
post #2

> 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. Can you boil lead out of water, or does it just become more concentrated?

Distillation would essentially be doing the reverse, "boiling the water out of the lead", and that would work. But no amount of boiling in a open pot is going to remove lead from your water. It's hard to tell from the article, but the reference to boiling water might have been in response to the other issue mentioned, trihalomethanes in the water. As dissolved gases, boiling should help drive them out. (side note: a…

Yup. Distillation should remove any heavy metal elements. It's not ideal to consume long term, as it removes most useful minerals and results in a hydrogen-heavy/acidic water, but it's certainly far better than consuming lead.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#16

I particularly like the comments to that article stating that only "liberals" believe the water supply is heaving with lead. The ridiculous political bun-fight infects everything, it seems. It's a mental disease.

I'm curious what excuse the anti-liberals come up with once their children are diagnosed with lead.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#18
post #5

The article failed to explain how the river got so toxic in the first place.

"Over the summer, researchers from Virginia Tech found that Flint River water is highly corrosive. That means when it comes into contact with lead from service lines, household pipes or solder, it eats away at the lead and sends it right to people's faucets."

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/29/444497051/high-lead-levels-in-...

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#19
post #15
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Distillation would essentially be doing the reverse, "boiling the water out of the lead", and that would work. But no amount of boiling in a open pot is going to remove lead from your water. It's hard to tell from the article, but the reference to boiling water might have been in response to the other issue mentioned, trihalomethanes in the water. As dissolved gases, boiling should help drive them out. (side note: a…

Yup. Distillation should remove any heavy metal elements. It's not ideal to consume long term, as it removes most useful minerals and results in a hydrogen-heavy/acidic water, but it's certainly far better than consuming lead.

Can you explain what hydrogen-heavy means?

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#20
post #15
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Distillation would essentially be doing the reverse, "boiling the water out of the lead", and that would work. But no amount of boiling in a open pot is going to remove lead from your water. It's hard to tell from the article, but the reference to boiling water might have been in response to the other issue mentioned, trihalomethanes in the water. As dissolved gases, boiling should help drive them out. (side note: a…

Yup. Distillation should remove any heavy metal elements. It's not ideal to consume long term, as it removes most useful minerals and results in a hydrogen-heavy/acidic water, but it's certainly far better than consuming lead.

When you say that boiling results in acidic water, are you referring to the fact that pH-neutral water would be slightly more acidic than your (slightly basic) blood, or is this about dissolved CO2 or something else entirely?
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