Safe Drinking Water Act: A Case Study

In Flint Michigan studies show there was a large amount of lead in the water , because of this high turbidity in the water witch means this water is dangerous.

What are some of the effects of the crisis? For any adult, lead poisoning can cause kidney problems, fatigue, lethargy, depression, and slower reaction time. However, adults require a higher level of lead in the blood to produce those effects. For pregnant women lead poisoning can can cause miscarriages and future health problems in a developing fetus. What about children? For children, lead poisoning affects the development of children's brains and nervous systems.

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.

(Campbell, 2016). Two giants in childhood lead poisoning research and advocacy, Dr. Philip Landrigan and Dr. David Bellinger, summarize the adverse effects of lead very completely, yet succinctly: “Lead is a devastating poison. It damages children’s brains, erodes intelligence, diminishes creativity and the ability to weigh consequences and make good decisions, impairs language skills, shortens attention span, and predisposes to hyperactive and aggressive behavior. Lead exposure in early childhood is linked to later increased risk for dyslexia and school failure.”(p. 3).

The Flint water crisis began with the city officials’ decision to change their water source in an attempt to save a significant amount of money. This switch from using Lake Huron as a water source, to using the Flint River cascaded into a failure to adhere to federal environmental laws and regulations and eventually the government’s manipulation to hide the problem and inaction to fix it. The city’s largest technical and engineering related failures was their corruption of science by not using corrosion control in the water and skewing testing data and procedures to ignore the problem.

Lead poisoning has been a concern for many years. In fact, because of the affects of lead poisoning, there has been an extensive decline in its use. "Many people believe lead poisoning is no longer a threat, yet millions of homes contain lead based paint" (Heck, J., 2005, para. 1). Exposure to lead at any level is unhealthy, especially in infants, children, and pregnant women and continues to be an ongoing dilemma in this country. I read two articles concerning lead poisoning; the first article is from FineTuning, a popular press and the second article is from Pediatrics, a peer-review journal. In this paper, I will clearly summarize each article by comparing the content of both articles. In addition, I will summarize the attention to

The rules for lead and copper have changed over the years, so let’s start at the beginning. Lead was originally regulated under the Public Health Service Act of 1962, which established a guideline of 0.050 mg/L (ppm) for lead in drinking water. This was carried over into the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. It wasn’t until 1991 that regulation changed significantly under the Lead and Copper Rule. This rule regulates how public water supplies must deal with the potential of lead and copper in the drinking water. Additionally, there is also the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act, which regulates the amount of lead that can be in products that could come into contact with drinking water, like pipes, plumbing fitting, fixtures, solder and flux.

This information can be gathered by examining the overall consumption of tap water by age in the United States, and more specifically toddler and infant ages where lead is most dangerous to consume. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average child ranging from 6 to 11 months consumes an average of .20 L/day of tap water, and the average 2 year old consumes .50 L/day of tap water in the United States. This information suggests that an infant or toddler living in a home with lead soldered pipes may consume up a frequency of .20 to .50 L/day of lead contaminated water which can lead to adverse effects for the development of those

The improved screening and treatment of lead poisoning decreased the severity of symptoms usually seen. However, the level of lead in the blood does not establish what symptoms are seen, since lead in blood only establishes current exposure. Recently, studies have shown that a long exposure to low amounts of lead may have severe neurobehavioral effects that are not diagnosed until the child enters school (Singhal et. al., 1980).

Flint, Michigan, is approximately 70 miles away from the largest body of fresh water in the world, the Great Lakes. Ironically, its residents cannot access clean water from their taps. The Flint water crisis began in April 2014, when the state chose to save money by switching Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, a source of water that is apparently filthy. Now, the city is in a state of emergency as they struggle to access clean and consumable water, while there are reports of lead contamination creating a huge epidemic health problem. Since the crisis, children are the primary demographic with high lead counts in their blood. Detrimental health effects include, skin lesions, hair loss, high levels of lead in the blood, depression and anxiety.

I would like to offer my comments involving an EPA regulation and how it can be improved. I believe that the Safe Drinking Water Act is not producing water that is safe enough for all Americans to drink, while leading many to believe that the water that they are drinking is as clean as possible. This is shown very clearly by the water that is produced in Flint, Michigan. This water is visibly discolored by the lead and other contaminants that are in the water and there a=have been many reports of children and adults who are suffering some serious symptoms of lead-poisoning. Despite these very real negative effects of the lack of proper filterage of this water, there is very little that can be done because the water technically meets the standards that are put out by the Safe Drinking and Water Act.

In the united states, Lead poisoning seems to be one of the most common and preventable environmental problem in children. When compared to the US borne children, Prevelance of this poisoing is 1.6%high in refugee kids.(2)

Once used for varying applications, lead is now known for its toxicity in the human body. Dr. Gary Goldstein, the chief executive of Kennedy Krieger Institute wrote, “Exposure to excessive amounts of inorganic lead during toddler years may produce lasting adverse effects upon brain function (Goldstein 1990).” Lead poisoning awareness has become increasingly prevalent in the American government, with lead poisoning testing recommended as early as nine to twelve months of age (Health and Human Services 2011). This paper will explain briefly lead’s history and industrial uses, as well as give an in-depth analysis on lead’s exposure to children and how it affects their developing brains.

Since the ban of lead based paint in residential homes, gasoline, and plumbing materials in 1978, numerous preventative measures have been put in place to protect children in the United States from exposure to high amounts of lead (Levin et al., 2008). As researchers and health care providers bring to light the many adverse health effects associated with chronic lead exposure, recent data suggests that there is no safe amount of lead a child can be exposed to. Yet while the regulations imposed have been significantly effective, elevated blood lead levels (EBLs) among U.S. children remain high. This literature review analyses whether lead poisoning is still a predominant threat to U.S. children by addressing the following

A proper diet and a well-nourished body are essential for healthy living. When lead poisoning is part of the picture, nutrition becomes even more crucial to living a healthy life; this is especially important for children to remember. In an article posted by the Health and Human Services in Massachusetts (2017), it wrote, “Even low levels of lead in a child's body can cause learning and behavioral problems. Very high levels can cause retardation, convulsions, and coma.” In other words, it is important for people, especially children, to stay healthy when exposed to lead.