Drinking Water Lead Contaminated Water

Who knew that Flints water could be deadly? Everyone should be allowed to have the same clean water to bathe in, drink, cook with, and to have fun in. Unfortunately, residents in Flint could not do this for quite some time. These residents were bathing and drinking from this water before the founding of high lead levels in it. Not only was it because of the high lead levels, but the pipes were very old as well. Due to actions made by the city council this caused a lot of problems for the residents in the city of Flint. This effected children, pregnant women, and the elderly the most. Many lawsuits were filed against the city of Flint. It was so serious to the point that Governor Snyder had to declare a state of emergency. This took place January 5th of 2016. High levels of lead in the water and old pipes lead to lawsuits, the sickness of Flint residents, and the city of Flint not doing their job.

For 50 years, Flint bought water from Detroit, which legitimately treated the water with orthophosphate, a concoction that basically covered the funnels as water moved through them, keeping lead from filtering into the water supply. This is what the procedure looked like at that point. Flint changed from Detroit's water supply to the Flint River in 2014, to a limited extent to spare cash. Be that as it may, the city did not utilize erosion control to keep lead from entering the water. The waterway itself was additionally found to contain eight times more chloride than Detroit's water, a compound that is profoundly destructive to metals. Most inhabitants in Flint have decades-old lead benefit lines that associate their homes to the city's primary water funnels. At the point when water from the stream coursed through those channels, it destroyed their inner parts, enabling lead to enter the supply. When Flint exchanged its water supply, most Flint inhabitants knew it quickly. Inhabitants depicted the water originating from their taps frequently as an earthy yellow and said it both noticed and tasted odd. It was later found that the water was conveying huge measures of lead, which can demonstrate particularly harming to youngsters. In October 2015, the city changed back to the Detroit water supply, yet Flint's water is still regarded risky to drink.

The current water crisis in Flint, Michigan stems from government officials changing water sources. The government of Flint switched from using the water of Lake Huron, which they had used for over 50 years, to using the water of the Flint River, which had a high level of chloride. The high chloride level eventually led to the corrosion of water pipes allowing unhealthy levels of chlorine and lead contamination. Additionally, irresponsible and unreliable water treatment allowed even more contaminates to enter the city’s water source. All this pollution ultimately ended up in the homes of thousands of people, poisoning families throughout the city. Lead poisoning can have disastrous effects on the human body, with some symptoms including “memory loss, anemia (lack of healthy red blood cells), kidney dysfunction, and in severe

Water is one of life’s most precious resources. Without it, life as we know it would cease to exist. Almost all life is dependent on water for survival. Humanity uses water in almost everything they do in their daily lives, whether that be for consumption or production. However water itself is not enough to sufice, clean water is required for life to thrive. Dirty untreated water can be the cause for death as well, so it is integral that water be kept clean. The government has enacted laws to ensure that our water is maintained and kept clean. These laws cover industries, plumbing, and sanitation among other things. Unfortunately, the city government in Flint Michigan willfully failed to provide safe water for its citizens.

The lead effects in the drinking water have caused a massive public health crisis (“Scientific Opinion on the risks”, 2015). The whole crisis was as a result of poor management practices employed in the Flint water plant. The city decided to switch the

The crisis all began in April of 2014 when Flint changed their water source from the Detroit water to Flint River in order to save money. Despite reports and health claims, the city neglected to address the water issue, and even corrupted water analysis data at the risk of the city resident’s health. In September of 2014 the city issued no less than three E. Coli warnings and advised citizens to boil all water before use. General motors found the water unsuitable for industrial use and ceased the use of Flint’s water in October 2014, not 5 months after the switch. The water was too acidic and would corrode their cars as well as disrupt the metallic structure due to the metals and compounds within the water. General Motors pushed the city to analyze the water’s safety and insisted that it is neither safe to use in industry nor for drinking. Not

In her article, Flint Water Crisis, Dr. Mona Hann-Attisha, discusses the occurrence about highly elevated, possibly but not yet actually harmful levels of lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, received national attention. She describes Flint, Michigan, was once a postindustrial home to flourishing automotive plants; the water crisis has been described as an example of government wrongdoing and disrepair by some and of a lack of omission by federal environmental regulators by others. She points to the tendency prior to a series of tests by independent researchers at Virginia Tech in October 2015, many residents found that their unease about the water’s taste, odor, and smell were being disregard intentionally by city and state officials,

The Flint Water Crisis began in April 2014 when the city switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure. However, several environmental disasters (from automakers, chemical, coal and agriculture industries) over the course of century played a systemic role in contamination of the Flint River for a prolonged period of time, leading to this current tragedy [Wahowiak,2016]. In 2011 a study found that in order for the Flint River water to be considered potable, it would need to be treated with an anti-corrosion agent which would cost the state about hundred dollars per day and could have prevented ninty percent of Flint’s water problems [Silverman]. However, in 2014, the water source was switched to the Flint River without any pre-water treatment. The switch was meant to be a temporary solution until the state-run supply line to Lake Huron was ready for connection in about two years.

Recently, the residents of Flint, Michigan experienced a water crisis that caused lead to contaminate the water supply of thousands of people in the city. Although, Flint is a developed city within one of the worlds most successful countries, the water crisis of 2014 rocked the nation to its core, causing us to investigate how safe our drinking water really is and how social inequality continues to plague the country. The old pipes that channeled the water from the Flint River is lined with lead that has gone untreated with anticorrosive for many years. The Flint River is filled with iron which in itself is highly corrosive, but when mixed with lead is doubly hazardous to those who consume the water (CNN). As contaminated water flowed to the

The residents of Flint, Michigan were continuously looking to the government for a solution to this crisis. However, another issue involved in the crisis is that the government was treating the wrong problem.However, many are puzzled as to why numerous residents are ill because the MEDQ rebutted that it would be multiple years before the chlorine would cause dramatic effects. The Detroit Free Press states “children were developing rashes and suffering from mysterious illnesses” (“Flint Water”). Until early 2015, the government believed that the cause to the Flint Water Crisis was due to an excess of antibacterial substances. One particular household observed changes in the smell and taste of their water. This motivated LeeAnne Walters, Flint resident, to have her water tested. The American Chemical Society (ACS) states the results “All 32 samples from the Walters ' home contained lead concentrations above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency action level of 15 micrograms per liter. Four samples were above 5,000 micrograms per liter, the threshold for hazardous waste. And one sample contained 13,200 micrograms per liter.” Due to this analysis, the EPA believes that the extremely high levels of lead can be the cause of the mysterious illnesses. In the end, the profound cause of the Flint Water Crisis appears to be increased exposure to lead.

Of the 43 million people who use private water wells in the U.S., it is estimated that 20% of them are drinking from water sources with contaminants capable of harming human health. What is the end result? An insidious water system, only growing in its abilities to trigger a catastrophe. Flint provides us with a glimpse of what may be the new normal: thousands of children poisoned from lead-contaminated water, hundreds of thousands of citizens dependent on expensive bottled water, and a government that has refused to be accountable every step of the

Dealing with lead exposure from water sources begins at the intrapersonal level. Individual knowledge is a significant factor for exposure when it comes to lead levels in water. For example, the USA Today article, “Lead taints drinking water in hundreds of schools, day cares across USA,” describes how in many cases, parents are not informed of lead levels in drinking water in schools until weeks or months after school officials are made aware of the danger (Ungar, 2016). When parents are aware of a potential danger facing their child’s health, they can encourage their children to limit their exposure by not drinking from those water fountains. Similarly, if a parent is made aware of a risk of exposure in their home, they can choose to buy bottled water for cooking, drinking, and cleaning. However, without knowledge of the risk of lead exposure, individual behavior will not change to limit that exposure. When it comes to exposure in children especially, individual behavior is another important factor for exposure. The same article describes the case of one child whose exposure to lead through school water fountains was greater because he was an active child, ran around a lot at school, and therefore needed to drink more water while at school. As a consequence, the lead levels in his body were more than twice the average.

As American citizen, I have become very concerned with the recent discovery on the toxic amount of lead found in America’s water. Throughout the article “Schools Nationwide Still Grapple with Lead in Water”, the author sheds light on elevated amounts of led found in schools across the U.S. In my beliefs it is outrages that took a tragedy such as Flint, Michigan to compel the government to look into the water in the U.S. While reading the article I discover that elevated lead water is not a recent matter and the government has been neglecting their duties of keeping the public safe since the late 90’s. Furthermore, the issue is very frustrating for students, parents, and teachers because they are all being affected by the lead found in the

This article was written about 1,500 New York City schools that have covered up the lead concentration in their schools drinking water, due mostly to outdated piped and water that is the wrong pH. The motive behind this is that schools that are found to have high lead levels are forced to replace their pipes and many schools can’t or won’t pay to fix the problem. Of course if a school can’t fix the lead levels in their water system, the school will be shut down and faculty members are out of a job.

The normal human body is made up of about 60% of water, which is obviously over half the human body. Drinking tap water is something that is a part of almost everyone’s daily lives, however, in the documentary Poisoned Water by PBS, Flint, Michigan’s tap water isn’t as safe as the people of Flint, Michigan originally thought. Lead poisoning, legionaries’ disease, even the deaths of 12 people have all been happening to the people of Flint, Michigan according to Poisoned Water by PBS. I was surprised to learn that it took so much effort just to get clean water. People should not have to worry about if their water is safe or not, it’s a basic human right to trust in the people who run the water plants to make sure the water is drinkable. I was also surprised to learn that a disease can arise from the lack of clean water. I didn’t realize that by constantly neglecting to clean up the pipes in Flint, Michigan, legionaries’ disease would form. I also was surprised to learn about the effects lead had on people who drank the contaminated water.