Flint, Michigan declares state of emergency after toxic levels of lead found in children
22 replies, posted
[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/15/toxic-water-soaring-lead-levels-in-childrens-blood-create-state-of-emergency-in-flint-mich/[/url]
[quote]The Hurley Medical Center, in Flint, released a study in September that confirmed what many Flint parents had feared for over a year: The proportion of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood has nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014.
The crisis reached a nadir Monday night, when Flint Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency.[/quote]
I was reading that title pretty calmly till the last word was "Children".
Holy shit.
Damn, now children are made in China
Well this seems like it was preventable.
[QUOTE=Pascall;49322792]Well this seems like it was preventable.[/QUOTE]
I'm amazed Detroit water is better than something.
I feel so bad for this community. Always the poster child for the failures of modern America, corruption, pollution, capitalism, etc.
[quote]Those who could afford it opted for bottled water, buying it by the gallons. Those who couldn’t spare the money drank it straight from the tap all the same, knowing that they would be paying for it later. When it came to bathing, some slowly filled bathtubs with pots of boiled water for their children.[/quote]
This is absolutely infuriating.
You know what makes this worse? Point source pollution of lead along the Flint River (along with dozens of other contaminants) [URL="http://michiganlakes.msue.msu.edu/uploads/files/Leonardi and Gruhn 2001.pdf"]was known since 2001.[/URL]
Hey flint no shit your water is toxic, there's a rusty Ford plant in it
[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;49322888]You know what makes this worse? Point source pollution of lead along the Flint River (along with dozens of other contaminants) [URL="http://michiganlakes.msue.msu.edu/uploads/files/Leonardi and Gruhn 2001.pdf"]was known since 2001.[/URL][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Sableye;49322903]Hey flint no shit your water is toxic, there's a rusty Ford plant in it[/QUOTE]
[quote]As a result of the failure to use an anti-corrosive agent, the city’s toxic water caused health problems and also irreparably damaged service pipes to homes, the lawsuit claims.
[url]http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/11/13/after-flint-water-crisis-families-file-lawsuit/75744376/[/url][/quote]
The issue doesn't seem to be the fault of the Flint River...
[QUOTE=/dev/sda1;49325889]The issue doesn't seem to be the fault of the Flint River...[/QUOTE]Never said it was, was pointing out the increasingly gross neglect by city and state officials.
[editline]15th December 2015[/editline]
How does that quote help your point, anyways?
[quote]When it came to bathing, some slowly filled bathtubs with pots of boiled water for their children.[/quote]
boiling won't clean out heavy metals like lead unless you distill it
Does lead absorb through the skin? I was under the impression you need to ingest it in some way.
Honestly, no American should have to deal with shitty water. Not at this point. I know its a bit impossible, but safe water should be pretty much a right in this country or any first world country honestly. Its like one of very few things we 100% need to survive and the most important besides oxygen.
This shits so bad not just because of the drinking, I mean you can ALWAYS go buy a decent filter no matter how poor you are if you are living in a place with running water, I mean if you live in a building with running water, you can sacrifice some food or something for a good filter. That only really solves the drinking problem though, and only on a tap.
This type of shit makes dishwashers useless and dangerous, my Brother cant even use his and his isnt even nearly close to this bad, not even close at all. Hell, even washing dishes with that type of water probably isnt that great either.
Bathing is a major issue, yeah we read they boil water and shit, or could dump filtered water into it. Problem is, thats so fucking slow and unrealistic. Secondly, im gonna have to assume the drinking fountains and school water is just as shit, so the kids have no access to good water anywhere.
Surely they mean zenith and not nadir (a low point)
[QUOTE=awcmon;49326160]boiling won't clean out heavy metals like lead unless you distill it[/QUOTE]
well you could just filter it, lead probably could be separated by membrane filtration
[editline]15th December 2015[/editline]
whats actually frustrating is that they don't advise people not to boil the water, lead isn't going to be removed by boiling it
Membrane filtration only removes particulate matter. [url=http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water]Apparently[/url], reverse osmosis and activated alumina filters work best, while activated carbon is less effective.
[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;49322791]Damn, now children are made in China[/QUOTE]
What are you talking about. Many countries throughout history, notably the U.S. as well, have had their fun periods of destroying people's health and surroundings with careless use of lead. Continuing to this day, apparently..
You need to precipitate the lead ions out of the water with something like silver ions.
We actually did this exact calculation in my chemistry class and it works. I just had my chem final today so I'm sick of chem
[QUOTE=Dr.C;49326900]You need to precipitate the lead ions out of the water with something like silver ions.
We actually did this exact calculation in my chemistry class and it works. I just had my chem final today so I'm sick of chem[/QUOTE]
You've earned a rest, then! Lead doesn't like silver. You're probably thinking of an anion like sulfate, which [I]could[/I] be delivered to solution with silver sulfate.
[QUOTE=Dr.C;49326900]You need to precipitate the lead ions out of the water with something like silver ions.
We actually did this exact calculation in my chemistry class and it works. I just had my chem final today so I'm sick of chem[/QUOTE]
you could do that, but thats expensive and requires a settling tank, and harder to do on large scale, rather, RO or some other form of filtration would be more effective at removing lead particles
the issue they seem to have is its comming from the old pipes, which the cheapest solution (pun not intended) is to put a plastic liner in the pipes, its more economical than digging up the old watermains, and can be done pretty quickly, my township did this to their old pipes and it only took them a couple years as opposed to the decade it would have taken to dig up all the lines and replace them, but it doesn't work in all cases
[editline]16th December 2015[/editline]
[quote]Almost immediately after the city started drawing from the Flint River in April 2014, residents began complaining about the water, which they said was cloudy in appearance and emitted a foul odor.
Since then, complications from the water coming from the Flint River have only piled up. Although city and state officials initially denied that the water was unsafe, the state issued a notice informing Flint residents that their water contained unlawful levels of trihalomethanes, a chlorine byproduct linked to cancer and other diseases.[/quote]
its not just lead though, they have actual industrial runoff in their water too
[editline]16th December 2015[/editline]
i think the reaction is probably a little overblown with the lead, children in the 60s and 70s weren't loosing IQ just from lead in the water, they were exposed to it in the air from the cars, they were exposed to it in their food from the packages, they were exposed to in in their houses from the paints, these people just have it in the water supply
[QUOTE=Dr.C;49326900]You need to precipitate the lead ions out of the water with something like silver ions.
We actually did this exact calculation in my chemistry class and it works. I just had my chem final today so I'm sick of chem[/QUOTE]For removing lead (or any metal) from water, you actually want to use a chelating agent such as an ion-exchange polymer and have it flow through a settling tank. These polymers replace the metals with sodium or potassium, using polyatomic anions like sulfates don't settle fast enough and still result in a toxic precipitate.
Source: I'm an environmental science major.
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