Lead Pollution in North Carolina - Research Paper Example

Acknowledgement

This research was all possible owing to the immense support of various people including my parents, lecturers and even my friends and all stakeholders who made it a success. I especially wish to offer acknowledgement significantly to;

First, I wish to thank and appreciate professor…. for relentlessly supporting as well as encouraging me besides his advice on the organization of the paper.

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Perspective on Lead Pollution in North Carolina, Major Cities and Flint Michigan

ABSTRACT

Lead pollution in Flint, Michigan as well as other cities of the United States of America has become a hazard to the residents of the United States. The pollution of the taped water system in the United States with lead and other heavy metals has resulted in negative health impacts to the residents of the affected cities. This article describes the crisis of lead intoxication in the United States. It majors on the case of lead intoxication in Flint, Michigan. Moreover, it expounds on the cause of the lead intoxication of the cities’ water system, establishes statics of such contamination and sheds light upon efforts by the government to curb the crisis.

Key words: Lead, contamination, pollution, level, drinking water, city

INTRODUCTION

Lead pollution of the water in Flint, Michigan has been an exposure consider being devastating to the American capitalism state. However, lead is a crisis elsewhere in the county as well as other places in the world even though the case in Flint is under consideration to be appalling and frightening. Lead is a dangerous element if accumulated in the human body since it is not required for any physiological processes in the body (Wenjiang, 354).Therefore, lead toxicity has been associated with effects such as lowered IQ, retarded development and behavioral problems that could even include crime. Moreover, acute lead toxicity could result in encephalopathy that could as well result in coma and even death (Wenjiang, 354). Therefore, lead toxicity is a crisis that the U.S government, both state and federal, should employ techniques to ensure its reduction. The Obama government however has promised federal considerations in attempts to reduce the lead levels in the water. Therefore, lead pollution has had a great deal of negative impact to both the economy of the United States as well as the health of the residents.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Lead Pollution in Flint, Michigan

The lead pollution issue at Flint, Michigan is not of natural origin, but purely resulted from human activities (Barlow, 79). Michigan is a major American city that has been a home place of motor vehicle industry as well as a major center of manufacturing. However, the important function of the city not the major cause of this catastrophic plague that is befalling the city (Heller & Garvin, 37). However, the pollution has resulted from political decisions by the government appointed managers of the city’s emergency who tried to cut Flint off the Detroit water system. The city water supply has therefore been of direction from the heavily polluted Flint River, which has been a home for decades of industrial wastes (Benke & Cushing, 146). The river water has since corroded the antiquated water pipes leading to the leaching of lead and copper to the water system. In Flint, there entailed reports of 8000 children who actually were below the ages of 6 years with blood containing contaminations from the lethal lead substance (Lin & Haeyoun). Moreover, there entailed 398 properties that depicted lead contaminations as concerns their drinking water in the period 2014-2016 (Lin & Haeyoun).

Image above depicts places in Flint, whereby lead exceeded 15 ppb levels. Web. May 19 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/04/us/flint-water-lead maps.html?version=meter+at+null&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click>

The residents, therefore not only complained about the unusual color change of the water, but also the foul smell and metallic taste in the water. However, the city officials ignored their plea putting into task slashing of cost and keeping flow of payments to the Wall Street bank as well as the bondholders who are the holders of the debts of the city. They insisted that a reconnection with the Detroit water supply was impossible and joined forces with state officials to create lies that denied the deleterious effects regarding Flint water supply.

However, the state Departments of Environmental Quality collected some samples and tested in a slipshod manner since it showed reduced lead levels. Further tests conducted later on revealed raised levels of lead in the water system above the guidelines arrived at by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within the US. Therefore, state officials doctored the results statistically to ensure they were below the agency’s action thresholds. Moreover, the state officials continued to stall the resident seven with the attempts by a GM plant that made its own public arrangement to make reconnections to the Detroit system. The plant had realized that the polluted water was highly involved in corrosion of the engine components. Even though the city water supply got reconnections to the Detroit system, lead has continued to leach into the service pipes into the drinking water. The water has hence remained unsafe for drinking for months. To make matters worse, the city residents are still facing expensive charges for the poisoned water.

There entails a regulatory measure for lead at 10ppb that can form the basis for a legal action since it is rather generous. However, it is worth noting that WHO indicates that no any trace of lead stands safe for human intake. On the advent of 2014 however, Kalamazoo city, data demonstrated that water sampled from 59 households contained pollution standing at 13ppb lead traces which was the same as that of Cassoville city (Wines & Schwartz). In Marysville city, water samples in 30 households reflected 12ppb levels.

Lead Poison in Other Cities

The lead intoxicated water problem in the United States of America does not just owe its consequences to the residents of Flint city only but also other American cities. For instant, in 2015, Sebring, Ohio, laboratory tests indicated unsafe levels of lead in the drinking water system of the town (Wines & Schwartz). The discovery came after town workers stopped addition of chemicals to curb the corrosion of the lead town water pipes. Moreover, officials made a delay in warning the residents of the dangers of the polluted water as it took 5 months before they could make a revelation about the contamination (Wines & Schwartz). Therefore, the city residents including the pregnant women and children drank the water as the taps and fountains in schools continued to run for the whole duration.

Moreover, in Washington DC, the manner of disinfecting drinking water changed in 2001(Mushak, 234). The lead levels in taped water of thousands of homes in Washington by 2001 entailed as high as twenty times the federally approved levels. The discovery came out after an independent study made a link to the lead level crisis in the District years back, which showed potentially dangerous blood levels in a number of school going children (Wines & Schwartz). However, the Washington D.C. water and sewers general manager made a cover up of the ordeal and even claimed that he would allow children to drink from the tap water. He strongly insisted that the water was safe. The city residents stayed in the darkness for 3 years since they remained convinced by manager of the water safety. Lead water pipes supplying 17,600 homes faced immediate replacement by the city officials (Pizzomo, 197). However, after three years, they discovered that the replacements of the pipes only worsened the contamination (Wines & Schwartz).

Unsafe lead levels have hence turned up in the tap waters of many cities. The catastrophe was an experience in 2006 cases of Durham. City employees in Durham failed to include the increased lead levels in drinking water. The Durham city manager in defense of the employees argued that the city never intended to hide the test result. Moreover, he claimed that the employees never thought that the results ought to be included in the reports. This argument was contradicting since the city only sent the routine September Durham test results and this was only because the results met the EPA standards (Harrison, 102). However, the state was interested in the test results taken prior to the September ones. When these hidden results had compilation with the results that the city presented to the state, Durham’s levels of lead in drinking water shot beyond the drinking water standards that EPA considers safe. Moreover, there entailed recorded cases of elevated lead levels in the water system in 2005.

In Greenville, North Carolina, public workers diagnosed a one-year-old boy with high blood lead levels, which the public workers said was from tap water (Cech, 49). An investigation conducted by the experts revealed that tap water had caused corrosion of lead solder in the domestic plumbing system and therefore translated into high levels of lead in water. Moreover, they revealed that cooked food such as pasta becomes a cord of lead particles if the cooking process involved use of contaminated water (Cech, 49). They conducted tests on pasta laced with small particles of lead and made a finding that a single serving was more laden with lead than a led paint the size of a dime. Therefore, the levels of lead in the child’s blood showed a dramatic decrease when the family stopped using the contaminated tap water for cooking. However, just like the other cities, the city authorities denied that there were lead pipes in the city. In addition, Jackson as well as Mississippi recorded the same case in July 2015. In the latter case, the officials only disclosed the information to the public after six months. Scores of places have also experienced the catastrophe over the years (Cech, 49).

Efforts by the Government to Correct Lead Pollution

The authorities have failed to organize door-to-door campaigns in attempts to distribute lead filters in Flint, Michigan. The county has had provision with donations of certified filters but only a third since being distributed. The local, state and the Obama administration have done nothing to marshal financial, human and medical resources necessary for addressing the crisis.

The congress banned lead water pipes about 30 years ago though significant numbers are still in use all over the U.S. While political leaders and the government upbraid both EPA and state regulators for lagging in response to the Flint crisis and elsewhere, they have themselves been laggards in offering their support. The government in 2006 significantly reduced the annual budget by the EPA to ensure reduced toxins and safety in drinking water. Ever since, the budget has remained low and the office has significantly lost its staff (Harrison, 102).

RESEARCH METHODS AND METHODOLOGY

The research methods in this paper involved secondary sources such as articles, books and even journals. The research methodology relied upon data from the various books and from such information; there was qualitative as well as quantitative analysis. Presentation of various data was through graphs, tables and even images.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The percentage of the blood lead level greater than five microgram per deciliter of children in Flint has a close relation to that of children in Michigan State as shown in table 1(Laidlaw et al., 5). Moreover, the correlation percentage of lead in blood whose levels exceeds five microgram per deciliter of children in Genesee County has a stronger association than in the children in flint. The data on blood lead nests within that of Genesee County. Levels of lead in blood in the United States has a predictable pattern which peaks in late summer or early autumn, the dry seasons of the year. This pattern is observable in many American states including Detroit and New York. The pattern had prediction by employment of variables that include soil moisture, temperature and wind speed among others.

Location

Genesee

Flint

Michigan

0.877*

0.816*

Genesee

-

0.977*

*p<0.001

Figure 1: Spearman Rank Order Correlation matrix of percentage blood lead greater than or equal to5 μg/dL in children of the State Michigan, Genesee County (including Flint) and Flint’s Urban area (Laidlaw et al., 6).

Figure 1:The figure above shows the number of cases of high blood lead levels greater than or equal to 10 microgram per deciliter in American children of ages less than five years by the months of the year 2012 (Laidlaw et al., 3).

CONCLUSION

The United States has suffered serious economic challenges as well as health impacts owing to the effects of pollution of water sources by heavy metals such as lead. Lead pollution in Flint, Michigan for instance has been a measure of concern. The etiologies of the crisis of human origin and the authorities have shown reluctance to act to them appropriately. Apart from Flint city, other American cities have also experienced the effects of water pollution due to lead and other heavy metals. The lead levels established in most cities including Flint are rather a lot, although at the same level there entails no any amount when it comes to lead that are allowable for human consumption as WHO explains. The government however has been reluctant to provide adequate measures to curb the crisis. In fact, their actions have greatly aimed at throwing blames at protection agencies and therefore these agencies have suffered a great deal.

Work Cited

Barlow, James A. From the corner to the corner office: a blue print for success. Lulu.com, 2016. Print.

Benke, Arthur C., and Colbert E. Cushing, eds. Rivers of North America. Cambridge: Academic Press, 2011. Print.

Cech, Thomas V. Principles of water resources: history, development, management, and policy. New York, United States: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print.

Harrison, Jill Lindsey. Pesticide drift and the pursuit of environmental justice. Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States: Mit Press, 2011. Print.

Heller, Gregory L., and Alexander Garvin. Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building on Modern Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Print.

Laidlaw, Mark, Gabriel Filippelli, Richard Saddler, Christopher, Gonzales, Andrew, Ball & Howard Mielke. Children’s Blood Lead Seasonality in Flint, Michigan (USA), and Soil-Sourced Lead Hazard Risks. International journal of environmental research and public health. (2016). MDPI.

• Lin, J. C.F. & Haeyoun., P. High Lead Levels Were Detected in Nearly 400 Flint Homes, and There May Be More. The New York Times. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/04/us/flint-water-lead- maps.html?version=meter+at+null&module=meterLinks&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click>

Mushak, Paul. Lead and public health: science, risk and regulation. Vol. 10. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2011. Print.

Pizzorno Jr, Joseph E. & Michael T. Murray. Textbook of natural medicine. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2012. Print.

Wenjiang Du. 2013. Informatics and management science IV. London: Springer. Print.

Wines, Michael & Schwartz John. “Unsafe Levels Of Lead Levels In Tap Water Not Limited To Flint.” New York Times. Web. May 19, 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/us/regulatory-gaps-leave-unsafe-lead-levels-in-water-nationwide.html?_r=0>