This column is the first of two parts.
Lead poses a serious, silent risk to the intellectual and behavioral development of children.
Clif CleavelandLead and related compounds cross the placenta and affect the fetus. The rapidly developing brain of a fetus, infant or child is especially susceptible to lead’s toxic effects. Despite treatment, damage caused to the nervous system may be irreversible, causing life-long learning and behavioral problems. The recent crisis in Flint, Mich., highlights the risk of lead-contamination of drinking water.
Since 1948, federal legislation has evolved to address lead and other contaminants in our water supply. Regulations have been periodically updated as knowledge of pollutants grows. The Environmental Protection Agency oversees monitoring and enforcement of clean-water standards in collaboration with state and local health and environmental agencies. A specific federal regulation, the Lead and Copper Rule, addresses contamination from these two elements.
Older houses, schools and public buildings were often constructed with lead pipes connecting to municipal water supplies. Lead solder was used to join plumbing components such as pipes, but lead continuously leaches from pipes into the water inside. Aging pipes leach more lead, and acidity and caustic chemicals in water intensify the process.
Congress banned lead water pipes for new construction more than 30 years ago. To lessen the danger, chemicals may be added to water to lessen corrosion and leaching of lead from these older pipes.
Because of severe financial problems in April 2014, a state-appointed manager authorized the switch of Flint’s water supply from Detroit’s municipal system to a less-costly source, the Flint River. A lapse in the proper treatment of water from the new source led to sharply elevated levels of lead in the water supply – up to 30 percent in homes in poorer sections of the city. State and regional EPA officials did not notify residents of the contamination until September 2015. Citizen protests about water quality had been ignored until that time.
Subsequently, elevated levels of lead were detected in blood samples from children living in these homes. The incidence of elevated blood levels rose from 2.4 percent to 4.9 percent following the change of water supply, but the numbers increased to 6.6 percent in neighborhoods with the highest levels of lead in drinking water.
Various resignations, state and national hearings and finger-pointing followed. To date, it is unclear how much it will cost to repair Flint’s water system and to identify, monitor and treat children with elevated blood lead levels. Equally unclear is where the money to do so will be found.
Flint is not the first city to deal with a lead issue in its water supply. Residents of Washington, D.C., learned in 2004 of lead contamination in the city’s drinking water. The problem had been uncovered three years earlier. In 2007, elevated lead levels compelled Baltimore to replace water from fountains in some public schools with bottled water.
In February, officials in Jackson, Miss., issued a warning to pregnant women and young children to use bottled or filtered water because of elevated lead levels in drinking water. A six-month gap followed collection of samples and notification of the public in the city.
In March, sampling of water at public schools in Newark, N.J., forced the shutting down of water fountains in half the schools.
In each of these cities, water leaving the pumping station was lead-free. Contamination occurred at the point of delivery of water into individual buildings.
Sophisticated monitoring and treatment of drinking water cannot be done cheaply. Identification and treatment of children exposed to lead is costly. With state and local governments facing cuts in revenue, public health and environmental monitoring often bear the brunt of subsequent cuts in services, hitting poor people and poor neighborhoods hardest.
In this angry political season, some candidates for national office call for radical cuts in government funding and abolition of entire agencies, including the EPA. These candidates offer no explanations of who will assume the functions of the EPA and other health and environmental services.
If you live in a structure built before 1985, consider testing your water with an inexpensive kit that can be ordered online. A positive test requires follow-up by a professional lab. Should the lab confirm the presence of lead, you can take the very expensive step of replacing lead pipes in your home or the far less-costly step of installing a filtering system at the tap.
Do not allow lead to jeopardize the health of your family.
Next week: Is lead a problem for our community?
Contact Clif Cleaveland at ccleaveland@atimesfreepress.com.