While the number of children with high lead levels has plummeted across the U.S. since lead paint and gasoline were phased out in the 1970s and 1980s, many communities remain exposed to the toxic heavy metal, the data show. [with no explanation as to how this can be, or whether anyone is investigating the possible source.]
In all, Reuters has identified 3,810 neighborhood areas with recently recorded childhood lead poisoning rates at least double those found across Flint, Michigan, during the peak of that city's water contamination crisis in 2014 and 2015. Some 1,300 of these hotspots had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher than Flint's.
Reuters defined an elevated result as any test higher than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's current reference number of 5 micrograms per deciliter, the level at which the agency recommends a public health intervention.
The news agency obtained the data, broken down by census tract or zip code, from state health departments or the CDC through records requests. U.S. census tracts are small county subdivisions averaging 4,000 residents. Zip codes have average populations of 7,500.
This newest map reflects additional data obtained this year, and includes some changes to data initially published by Reuters in a map last December.
The map now includes testing data for additional states and cities: Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Vermont, North Carolina, New York City and Washington, DC.
The newly identified communities with high rates of elevated childhood lead levels include a historic district in Savannah, Georgia, areas in Rutland, Vermont, near the popular skiing mountain Killington, and a largely Hasidic Jewish area in Brooklyn.
The updated map includes other minor changes. Recently, the CDC provided testing results to correct data it previously released to Reuters for Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia and Louisiana. Responding to earlier records requests, the CDC mistakenly released test results for all children under 16, though the news agency requested testing results for children under six – the age group most likely to be affected by lead exposure.
Still, even with the updated CDC data, the number of areas with high rates of elevated lead tests increased or remained about the same in each state.
The map now features zip code level data for Los Angeles County, California, provided by the state's Department of Public Health. An earlier version featured census tract level results, but reporters discovered the county's epidemiologist had misclassified some of them. The county has declined to provide corrected data.
The defendants include Michigan's former health director, Nick Lyon, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter. He was accused of failing to timely alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that occurred in 2014-15 when Flint was drawing improperly treated water from the Flint River. That led to residents' water being tainted with lead.
Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, who took control of the investigation in January after the election of a new attorney general, said "all available evidence was not pursued" by the previous team of prosecutors.
"This week, we completed the transfer into our possession millions of documents and hundreds of new electronic devices, significantly expanding the scope of our investigation," Hammoud and Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.
"Our team's efforts have produced the most comprehensive body of evidence to date related to the Flint water crisis. We are now in the best possible position to find the answers the citizens of Flint deserve and hold all responsible parties accountable," they said.
They said it is possible that Lyon and others could be charged again.
Flint was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history. While waiting for a new pipeline to bring water from Lake Huron, the majority-black city of 100,000 pulled water from the Flint River without treating it to reduce corrosive effects on old pipes. Lead infected the distribution system in Flint, where 41% of residents are classified by the government as living in poverty.
Due to poor finances, Flint was being run by financial managers appointed by the governor. The uproar over water quality reached a peak by fall 2015 when a doctor reported high levels of lead in children, which can cause brain damage.
The city's water no longer comes from the river and has significantly improved, but some residents are so distrustful that they continue to use bottled water.
Three years after the investigation began, no one is behind bars. Seven of 15 defendants have pleaded no contest to misdemeanors. Their records will eventually be scrubbed clean. Charges were pending against eight people, including former Michigan chief medical executive Eden Wells and two men who were state-appointed emergency managers in Flint.
From the story:
In all, Reuters has identified 3,810 neighborhood areas with recently recorded childhood lead poisoning rates at least double those found across Flint, Michigan, during the peak of that city's water contamination crisis in 2014 and 2015. Some 1,300 of these hotspots had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher than Flint's.
Reuters defined an elevated result as any test higher than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's current reference number of 5 micrograms per deciliter, the level at which the agency recommends a public health intervention.
Once lead paint and gasoline became less popular in the 1970s and 1980s, Reuters noted, so did the number of children who tested positive for high lead levels. However, there are still many communities at serious risk of exposure.
"The newly identified communities with high rates of elevated childhood lead levels include a historic district in Savannah, Georgia, areas in Rutland, Vermont, near the popular skiing mountain Killington, and a largely Hasidic Jewish area in Brooklyn," according to the story.
By Annamarya Scaccia
Mar 21 2018
Over the last four decades, the number of children with high blood-lead levels has dropped dramatically. That's thanks in part to the phase-out of lead paint and lead-based gasoline by the mid-1980s. Yet, that doesn't mean that youth across the country are not at high risk of lead poisoning, as evidenced by the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, four years ago. In fact, state and federal data show that kids are still being poisoned by lead in thousands of cities in the United States. But the statistics that are available may not even paint a complete picture of the problem.
In December 2016, Reuters published an extensive investigation that took a deep dive into blood-lead testing results in more than 3,800 neighborhoods across the country. And what Reuters found was nothing short of shocking: The childhood lead poisoning rates in some 1,300 areas were at least four times higher than the rates recorded during the peak of Flint's water crisis in 2014 and 2015. The Reuters investigation also showed that, in all of the 3,810 neighborhoods that the outlet identified, the overall rate of children who've tested positive for lead was at least double that of Flint's.
"She was having such a hard time remembering week to week her alphabet, and I couldn't understand why she couldn't retain the information…The light bulb just came on. I was like 'This child could be lead poisoned.'" http://beltmag.com/cleveland-failed-solve-lead-poisoning-crisis/ …
8:09 AM - Mar 15, 2018
Why Has Cleveland Failed To Solve Its Lead Poisoning Crisis? - Belt Magazine
By Jonathan Welle Why has Cleveland failed to solve the slow-motion crisis of lead poisoning, which dims the future for thousands of children and families each year, even when other cities have done...
Among the cities that Reuters identified in its investigation is Cleveland, Ohio, where nearly half of the kids tested for lead in the last decade had high blood-lead levels, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data analyzed by the outlet. And it doesn't seem that the rate of children exposed to lead has decreased by much since the 2016 investigation was published. New Ohio Department of Health data showed that the number of children in Cleveland who tested positive for lead poisoning was still about four times the national average, according to The Plain Dealer.
Other cities that have some of the highest childhood lead poisoning rates include, according to Essence and Reuters:
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Baltimore, Maryland
- St. Joseph, Missouri
- Detroit, Michigan
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Chicago, Illinois
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Trenton, New Jersey
Terry Sullivan, general president of the Laborers' Health & Safety Fund of North America, said in a news release following Reuters' report:
Getting this toxic substance out of our communities starts with removing and replacing lead in outdated water service lines, in buildings and on bridges. Until more federal and state funding to combat this problem is made available, like it finally was for those in Flint, the long-term health of millions of Americans and their children will continue to be put at risk."
Carol Ott 🏚️
@CarolSOtt
Something you should know about lead poisoning in Baltimore City. Despite all of the progress made, and a lack of attention to the issue that would lead you to believe it's no longer affecting many kids -- it is.
10:41 AM - Mar 19, 2018
But even in cities where the number of children poisoned by lead has dropped significantly, lead poisoning is still a major issue. In New York City, for example, the rate of kids who've tested positive for lead has plummeted by 70 percent since 2005, WNYC reported. But local public health experts claim that the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene undercounts the number of children exposed to lead because the agency uses an outdated measuring standard, according to WNYC. In 2012, the CDC adjusted its threshold for high blood lead levels to 5 micrograms per deciliter. The old standard was at or above 10 micrograms. Although most cities follow the new threshold, New York City has still maintained the 10 micrograms standard, which experts say skews its lead poisoning rates, WNYC reported.
But any amount of lead can do damage, and have a tremendous negative impact on a child's health. Even low blood lead levels can have "subtle but important neurological deficits," David Rosner, professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, told WNYC. Low lead exposure can lead to a decreased IQ, poor academic performance, and a lack of impulse control, Rosner said.
Whether it's Cleveland or New York City, cities need to change the way they tackle the lead poisoning problem. As Rosner told WNYC:
We'll continue to act as if it's the kid's problems and we'll address it by blaming the children, rather than understanding that we as a society have created the conditions that are poisoning these children.
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