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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

#41

Post by gozur88 »

drunkpotato wrote: post #39
rileymat2 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flint also made news because local control was subverted by the state to make the decision.

Not the state as a generic entity, Republicans specifically, neocons with a very specific ideological privatization agenda practicing good old disaster capitalism by wrecking the state budget then claiming the need to privatize and cut budgets. It's important to point out what actually happened (is happening, will continue to happen), and not gloss over it by pretending it's a generic government problem.

>Not the state as a generic entity, Republicans specifically, neocons with a very specific ideological privatization agenda practicing good old disaster capitalism...

That's biased enough to be wrong. Flint wasn't in receivership because of Republicans, and in fact the mayor, a Democrat, signed on to the plan to use water from the Flint river. A plan which, by the way, was conceived by the city's emergency manager, also a Democrat.

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

#42

Post by ScottBurson »

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…

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

Yes! This is a very fixable problem -- and fixing it will create jobs in the short run, and reduce dependency in the long run. Definitely money worth spending.

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

#43

Post by h4nkoslo »

JauntTrooper wrote: post #22

This is a public health disaster. It's tough to really fathom the number of children across the country that will suffer mental and behavioral problems for life because of this. Why are there not more lawsuits? Is the scope of the damage too difficult to quantify, or the negligent parties too diffuse/remote to sue? As much as our litigation-based culture is vilified, it can help spur action by changing the cost/benef…

There are a shitload of lawsuits, whenever a plausible plaintiff can be found.

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

#44

Post by dang »

thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #20

and these same people vote in people that shut down the epa and do everything possible to poison their children. let them get what they asked for.

Posting like this here will get your account banned, so please don't do it again. Instead, please post civilly and substantively or not at all. Also, please don't use HN for ideological or political battle. That's not what this site is for.

It's good to (re)-read the following to get an idea of the kind of discussion we're hoping for here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

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

#45

Post by seanp2k2 »

hkmurakami wrote: post #33

It looks like California is relatively clean on this scale, but what about the Superfund sites? I feel like those are gray areas that get much less attention than I would expect. With former semiconductor fab sites and former military sites getting increasingly developed with sometimes only a few feet of topsoil removed for cleanup (plus some kind of shielding material?), and a seeming lack of hard data for long term…

Yeah, can't wait for them to try bringing manufacturing back to America. Hopefully California will shut anything like that down.

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

#46

Post by seanp2k2 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #13
olegkikin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (…

Is anyone else not totally cool with showering and drinking water with flouride, chlorine, and inhibitor chemicals? APEC Water makes a great counter-top tankless RO filtration system for $200 that takes 10 mins to install and doesn't require any permanent mounting (so it's fine to use in apartments). The only downside is that unlike filter taps with a reservoir tank, you only get the RO membrane rate of flow (~2GPH depending on your water pressure) so you kinda need to fill up a jug and keep it in the fridge, otherwise an 8oz glass of water takes about a minute to fill.

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

#47

Post by RawData »

h4nkoslo wrote: post #43
JauntTrooper wrote: post #22

This is a public health disaster. It's tough to really fathom the number of children across the country that will suffer mental and behavioral problems for life because of this. Why are there not more lawsuits? Is the scope of the damage too difficult to quantify, or the negligent parties too diffuse/remote to sue? As much as our litigation-based culture is vilified, it can help spur action by changing the cost/benef…

There are a shitload of lawsuits, whenever a plausible plaintiff can be found.

Yeah but who do you sue if the old flaky paint in the house you own causes your kid to get lead poisoning?

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

#49

Post by mdpopescu »

emodendroket wrote: post #32
tn13 wrote: post #25

It is hard to sue government. It is even harder to make them lose their jobs. When it comes to compensation they will simply use our own money to pay back. Utilities remains a major pain in USA partly because of the ridiculous government control which invariably leads to corruption. I have been exclusively using distilled water in Sunnyvale for last 3 years. Water in Sunnyvale has dangerous levels of pesticides if no…

I don't see any reason to think totally privatizing and deregulating utilities would be any safer.

Here's one: companies like repeat customers.

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

#50

Post by emodendroket »

mdpopescu wrote: post #49
emodendroket wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any reason to think totally privatizing and deregulating utilities would be any safer.

Here's one: companies like repeat customers.

lol. Yeah, it works great for broadband. What are you going to do, shut off the water? Or will multiple companies be building out competing water infrastructure? Let's be realistic here.
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