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Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

reuters.com

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Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#11

Post by zaroth »

So Reuters is finally getting around to doing their job; moving beyond a sensationalized story which sells ads, to the unglamorous work of uncovering the truth, that Flint isn't special at all and that the government knew that and has been covering it up.

It's a shame they couldn't get around to reporting the truth behind the sensation a year ago when public outcry was enough to get substantial Federal funding allocated to fixing this nation-wide.

First there should be a Federal law requiring disclosure of testing data nationwide, and the full sets should be put online in standardized formats.

Childhood lead rates should be shown next to walkability score and crime stats on Realtor sites. Home sellers should be mandated to report their local area exposure rates at the time of sale.

Second, setup a super-fund type cash pool which provides for remediation of the top X% of effected areas.

Third, new laws for mandatory testing and reporting, and fines and felonies for underreporting, misreporting, or falsifying reports of childhood lead exposure.

Here's to hoping that major infrastructure spending includes the unglamorous water mains replacements as much as the more glamorous monument-style projects.

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#12

Post by olegkikin »

bmj wrote: post #9
toodlebunions wrote: post #8

Will they get the same attention? Will the nation ever upgrade and repair ancient and disastrous infrastructure?

In my area (Western PA), the water authority is working to replace lead service lines, but only to the curb. Unfortunately, it is up to the homeowner to replace the line from the curb to the house. This is quite expensive, and depending on the topography, requires a significant amount of digging. This is not an excuse, but I think it's important to point out in some cases, the issues with lead are on private property…

Wait, what? They have actual lead pipes for drinking water? That's insane.

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#13

Post by toomuchtodo »

olegkikin wrote: post #12
bmj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my area (Western PA), the water authority is working to replace lead service lines, but only to the curb. Unfortunately, it is up to the homeowner to replace the line from the curb to the house. This is quite expensive, and depending on the topography, requires a significant amount of digging. This is not an excuse, but I think it's important to point out in some cases, the issues with lead are on private property…

Wait, what? They have actual lead pipes for drinking water? That's insane.

It's safe as long as the water chemistry doesn't leach the pipes. If it does, and you're not using agents in the water to stop it, you get Flint, MI.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

"The Flint water crisis is a drinking water contamination issue in Flint, Michigan, United States that started in April 2014. After Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (which was sourced from Lake Huron as well as the Detroit River) to the Flint River (to which officials had failed to apply corrosion inhibitors), its drinking water had a series of problems that culminated with lead contamination, creating a serious public health danger. The Flint River water that was treated improperly caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of the heavy metal neurotoxin."

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#14

Post by eric_h »

zaroth wrote: post #11

So Reuters is finally getting around to doing their job; moving beyond a sensationalized story which sells ads, to the unglamorous work of uncovering the truth, that Flint isn't special at all and that the government knew that and has been covering it up. It's a shame they couldn't get around to reporting the truth behind the sensation a year ago when public outcry was enough to get substantial Federal funding alloca…

I wonder to what extent Michael Moore's Flint pedigree influenced the media.

I'm guessing it's decidedly non-zero.

Edit: this was not intended as a dig at Michael Moore or anyone else. The fact that he made a documentary featuring Flint means that more people than otherwise should be are aware of the place, hence, media stories about it are more likely to gain traction with the general population. Michael Moore humanized Flint. His making it recognizeable, I think, aided in the rise of this particular story, IMO.

I also think the name of the city helped its presence in the news cycle. Flint, being short and a homonym for another English word is far more memorable than say "Scarborough" (which, amusingly, was the first name that came to mind when I tried to come up with the most memorable unmemorable name for a town.)

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#15

Post by zaroth »

bmj wrote: post #9
toodlebunions wrote: post #8

Will they get the same attention? Will the nation ever upgrade and repair ancient and disastrous infrastructure?

In my area (Western PA), the water authority is working to replace lead service lines, but only to the curb. Unfortunately, it is up to the homeowner to replace the line from the curb to the house. This is quite expensive, and depending on the topography, requires a significant amount of digging. This is not an excuse, but I think it's important to point out in some cases, the issues with lead are on private property…

In some cases the solution not being obvious isn't an excuse for why there isn't proper disclosure and prompt remediation when the solution is obvious.

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#16

Post by gozur88 »

zaroth wrote: post #11

So Reuters is finally getting around to doing their job; moving beyond a sensationalized story which sells ads, to the unglamorous work of uncovering the truth, that Flint isn't special at all and that the government knew that and has been covering it up. It's a shame they couldn't get around to reporting the truth behind the sensation a year ago when public outcry was enough to get substantial Federal funding alloca…

Flint made news because the problem was new. Flint water used to be safe, and then it became unsafe.

There are a lot of problems nobody bothers with because they're not new problems.

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#17

Post by hawkice »

zaroth wrote: post #11

So Reuters is finally getting around to doing their job; moving beyond a sensationalized story which sells ads, to the unglamorous work of uncovering the truth, that Flint isn't special at all and that the government knew that and has been covering it up. It's a shame they couldn't get around to reporting the truth behind the sensation a year ago when public outcry was enough to get substantial Federal funding alloca…

> So the AP is finally getting around to doing their job

This is a report by Reuters.

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#18

Post by nashashmi »

zaroth wrote: post #11

So Reuters is finally getting around to doing their job; moving beyond a sensationalized story which sells ads, to the unglamorous work of uncovering the truth, that Flint isn't special at all and that the government knew that and has been covering it up. It's a shame they couldn't get around to reporting the truth behind the sensation a year ago when public outcry was enough to get substantial Federal funding alloca…

As much as I would like to agree with you, this article shows that it takes time and organized manpower to do this kind of research.

For whatever reason, this kind of work and reporting could not be done instantly, either due to investigative funding issues, politics, priority, or sequence of research.

So giving credit where it is due, I am glad Reuters succeeded at publishing this data.

Re: Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint

#19

Post by dragonwriter »

zaroth wrote: post #11

So Reuters is finally getting around to doing their job; moving beyond a sensationalized story which sells ads, to the unglamorous work of uncovering the truth, that Flint isn't special at all and that the government knew that and has been covering it up. It's a shame they couldn't get around to reporting the truth behind the sensation a year ago when public outcry was enough to get substantial Federal funding alloca…

This story is from Reuters, not AP; also, there have been stories about large numbers of places being worse than Flint since very early in the period when Flint's water issues were getting attention.
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