Tag Archives: Lead

Lead levels fall below federal limits in Flint, Michigan: state

Flint Water Tower in Michigan

(Reuters) – Lead levels in Flint, Michigan’s drinking water, the focus of a public health crisis, have fallen below federal limits, state officials said on Tuesday, although they cautioned residents to keep using filtered water as the city’s old lead pipes are replaced.

Tests showed lead levels in the city’s drinking water were 12 parts per billion (ppb) between July and December, below the federal limit of 15 ppb, Michigan officials said in a statement.

The water crisis erupted when tests in 2015 found high amounts of lead in blood samples taken from children in Flint, a predominantly black city of about 100,000.

Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron in April 2014. The more corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes and into the drinking water.

Lead poisoning stunts children’s cognitive development, and no level of exposure is considered safe. Flint’s contamination prompted dozens of lawsuits and criminal charges against former government officials.

The city switched back to the previous water system in October 2015.

Flint’s lead levels are now comparable to levels in cities of similar size and with infrastructure of similar age, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said in a statement.

Even with the test results, programs that provide water filters and related services will continue, he said.

“This is not the end of our work in Flint, but it is one more step along the path toward Flint’s future,” said Snyder, a Republican who has been sharply criticized by residents for his handling of the crisis.

Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver, said in a statement she would continue efforts to replace the estimated 20,000 lead-tainted pipes that remain in the city.

“We are not out of the woods yet. My goal has not changed. All of the lead-tainted pipes in Flint still need to be replaced,” she said.

Flint resident Melissa Mays, a plaintiff in a drinking water lawsuit, said the results were misleading because only one-third of Flint homes had been tested and the state had not identified which homes have lead pipes.

“Until they get every home to test zero, they should not be making these statements,” she said. “It’s giving residents a false sense of security.”

In December, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged four former officials with conspiring to violate safety rules, bringing to 13 the number of current and former officials charged in connection with the crisis.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and David Ingram in New York. Additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago.; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Peter Cooney)

Exclusive: CDC considers lowering threshold level for lead exposure

CDC building

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering lowering its threshold for elevated childhood blood lead levels by 30 percent, a shift that could help health practitioners identify more children afflicted by the heavy metal.

Since 2012, the CDC, which sets public health standards for exposure to lead, has used a blood lead threshold of 5 micrograms per deciliter for children under age 6. While no level of lead exposure is safe for children, those who test at or above that level warrant a public health response, the agency says.

Based on new data from a national health survey, the CDC may lower its reference level to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter in the coming months, according to six people briefed by the agency. The measure will come up for discussion at a CDC meeting January 17 in Atlanta.

But the step, which has been under consideration for months, could prove controversial. One concern: Lowering the threshold could drain sparse resources from the public health response to children who need the most help – those with far higher lead levels.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

Exposure to lead – typically in peeling old paint, tainted water or contaminated soil – can cause cognitive impairment and other irreversible health impacts.

The CDC adjusts its threshold periodically as nationwide average levels drop. The threshold value is meant to identify children whose blood lead levels put them among the 2.5 percent of those with the heaviest exposure.

“Lead has no biological function in the body, and so the less there is of it in the body the better,” Bernard M Y Cheung, a University of Hong Kong professor who studies lead data, told Reuters. “The revision in the blood lead reference level is to push local governments to tighten the regulations on lead in the environment.”

The federal agency is talking with state health officials, laboratory operators, medical device makers and public housing authorities about how and when to implement a new threshold.

Since lead was banned in paint and phased out of gasoline nearly 40 years ago, average childhood blood lead levels have fallen more than 90 percent. The average is now around 1 microgram per deciliter.

Yet progress has been uneven, and lead poisoning remains an urgent problem in many U.S. communities.

A Reuters investigation published this month found nearly 3,000 areas with recently recorded lead poisoning rates of at least 10 percent, or double those in Flint, Michigan, during that city’s water crisis. More than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher than in Flint.

In the worst-affected urban areas, up to 50 percent of children tested in recent years had elevated lead levels.

The CDC has estimated that as many as 500,000 U.S. children have lead levels at or above the current threshold. The agency encourages “case management” for these children, which is often carried out by state or local health departments and can involve educating families about lead safety, ordering more blood tests, home inspections or remediation.

Any change in the threshold level carries financial implications. The CDC budget for assisting states with lead safety programs this year was just $17 million, and many state or local health departments are understaffed to treat children who test high.

Another concern: Many lead testing devices or labs currently have trouble identifying blood lead levels in the 3 micrograms per deciliter range. Test results can have margins of error.

“You could get false positives and false negatives,” said Rad Cunningham, an epidemiologist with the Washington State Department of Health. “It’s just not very sensitive in that range.”

The CDC doesn’t hold regulatory power, leaving states to make their own decisions on how to proceed. Many have yet to adapt their lead poisoning prevention programs to the last reference change, implemented four years ago, when the level dropped from 10 to 5 micrograms per deciliter. Other states, including Virginia and Maine, made changes this year.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is close to adopting a rule requiring an environmental inspection – and lead cleanup if hazards are found – in any public housing units where a young child tests at or above the CDC threshold.

If the CDC urges public health action under a new threshold, HUD said it will follow through. “The only thing that will affect our policy is the CDC recommendation for environmental intervention,” said Dr. Warren Friedman, with HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes.

To set the reference value, the CDC relies upon data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey. The latest data suggests that a small child with a blood lead level of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter has higher exposure than 97.5 percent of others in the age group, 1 to 5 years.

But in lead-poisoning hotspots, a far greater portion of children have higher lead levels. Wisconsin data, for instance, shows that around 10 percent of children tested in Milwaukee’s most poisoned census tracts had levels double the current CDC standard.

Some worry a lower threshold could produce the opposite effect sought, by diverting money and attention away from children with the worst exposure.

“A lower reference level may actually do harm by masking reality – that significant levels of lead exposure are still a problem throughout the country,” said Amy Winslow, chief executive of Magellan Diagnostics, whose blood lead testing machines are used in thousands of U.S. clinics.

(Edited by Ronnie Greene)

Michigan governor expects no charges over Flint crisis

Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder in Lansing, Michigan, U.S.,

(Reuters) – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said he had “no reason to be concerned” he would be charged in connection with the Flint drinking water crisis that exposed city residents to high levels of lead, the Detroit Free Press reported on Thursday.

Snyder made the comments to the newspaper on Wednesday, the day after two Flint emergency managers appointed by the governor were indicted on felony charges of conspiring to violate safety rules.

“I have no reason to be concerned,” Snyder was quoted as saying, while acknowledging he could not speak on behalf of state Attorney General Bill Schuette. Both Snyder and Schuette are Republicans.

Snyder told the paper much of the $3.5 million in taxes he is using for his criminal defense was being spent to find and prepare records requested by Schuette and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is also investigating the water scandal.

Schuette has filed 43 criminal charges against 13 current and former state and local officials, including the emergency managers this week.

Snyder’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the interview.

Flint has been at the center of a public health crisis since last year, when tests found high amounts of lead in blood samples taken from children in the poor, predominantly black city of about 100,000 residents.

Critics have called for charges to be brought against the governor, who has been in office since 2011, as well as other high-ranking state officials. Snyder has said he believes he did nothing criminally wrong.

Asked at a news conference on Tuesday whether the investigation would lead to charges against senior state officials, Schuette said no one was excluded from the probe.

Flint’s water contamination was linked to a switch of its source to the Flint River from Lake Huron in April 2014, a change made in an attempt to cut costs, while the city was under state-run emergency management.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Von Ahn)

Three Michigan officials charged in Flint Toxic Water crisis

A woman with a "Flint Lives Matter" shirt walks toward a hearing room where Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy will testify on Capitol Hill in

By Serena Maria Daniels

FLINT, Mich. (Reuters) – Three Michigan state and local officials were criminally charged on Wednesday in an investigation into dangerous lead levels in the city of Flint’s drinking water, and the state attorney general said there would be more charges to come.

Genesee District Judge Tracy Collier-Nix authorized charges against Flint employee Michael Glasgow and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) employees Stephen Busch and Michael Prysby.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette told a news conference to announce the charges that it was “only the beginning and there will be more to come.” He said the defendants were cooperating with investigators.

The three could not be reached for comment.

Schuette added nothing was off the table when asked if Michigan Governor Rick Snyder could face charges. Snyder has been criticized for the administration’s handling of the crisis, and he has apologized but said he would not resign.

The Republican governor told a news conference in the capital, Lansing, later on Wednesday that he did not believe he had done anything criminally wrong in relation to the water crisis. He said his office has been cooperating with the state probe but that he himself had not been questioned.

“I’m not looking for vindication. This is about getting to the truth,” said Snyder, who called the charges “deeply troubling” and emphasized the state would pursue wrongdoing and hold people accountable.

Flint, which has about 100,000 people, was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager in 2014 when it switched its source of water from Detroit’s municipal system to the Flint River to save money. The city switched back in October.

The river water was more corrosive than the Detroit system’s and caused more lead to leach from its aging pipes. Lead can be toxic and children are especially vulnerable. The crisis has prompted lawsuits by parents who say their children are showing dangerously high blood levels of lead.

Glasgow, 40, was charged with tampering with evidence by falsifying reports to state environmental officials, and willful neglect of duty, Schuette said.

Busch, 40, and Prysby, 53, were charged with five and six counts, respectively, including misconduct in office, tampering with evidence and violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, Schuette said. The attorney general said the two men misled authorities and altered results in the testing of lead levels in the water in Flint homes.

“They had a duty to protect the health of families and citizens of Flint,” Schuette said. “They failed.”

If convicted, Glasgow faces up to five years in prison and $6,000 in fines, while Busch faces up to 15 years and $35,000 in fines, and Prysby faces up to 20 years and $45,000 in fines, according to court documents.

Glasgow on Wednesday was placed on unpaid leave, city of Flint spokeswoman Kristin Moore said. The MDEQ officials charged were also suspended without pay as of Wednesday, Melanie Brown, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an email.

Dena Altheide, a court administrator, said court dates and arraignments had not been set.

FIRST STEP

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said holding people responsible was a good first step but that the city still needed the resources to fix the issue, including swapping out all the old lead pipes.

Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor, said what happened in Flint was wrong, but whether it was criminal was a very different question.

“You have to now prove exactly what they did that violated the law. That’s just not easy,” Henning said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit and the FBI are independently investigating the crisis, looking for any violations of federal law, said Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In January, Michigan’s Schuette named a special prosecutor to lead the investigation into whether criminal charges should be filed.

“The criminal charges against MDEQ officials are one step towards justice for the families of Flint who were poisoned as a result of the actions of Governor Snyder’s administration,” U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, said in a statement.

Cummings and other House Democrats have called for Snyder to step down.

Also on Wednesday, Democrats in the U.S. Senate introduced a legislative package to invest more than $70 billion over the next 10 years through loans, grants and tax credits in the country’s crumbling water infrastructure and lead relief programs.

(Reporting and writing by Ben Klayman; Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago, Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey in Washington, and David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Diane Craft and Peter Cooney)

Michigan Proposes strictest lead testing in country

The top of a water tower is seen at the Flint Water Plant in Flint, Michigan

DETROIT (Reuters) – Michigan officials and water experts on Friday proposed the state adopt what would be the nation’s strictest lead-testing rules in response to a water crisis in city of Flint that has fueled widespread public outrage.

A committee put in place by the state to respond to the Flint crisis recommended a lowering of the level of lead in water at which action is required by public water systems.

Any implementation would be through a combination of statutory, rule and other changes, said Ari Adler, a spokesman for Governor Rick Snyder. The potential costs, financing and timeline are still to be determined, he said.

Federal rules require action if lead levels top 15 parts per billion, but Michigan would reduce its threshold by 2020 to 10 parts per billion to align with World Health Organization standards, officials at the meeting held in Flint said.

The federal Lead and Copper Rule can only be altered nationally via federal action, according to a statement from the governor’s office. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told Congress on Wednesday that the agency would not have reforms ready until early 2017.

“The federal Lead and Copper Rule needs to be improved immediately,” the governor said in a statement. “It’s dumb and dangerous and in Michigan we aren’t going to wait for the federal government to fix it anymore.”

The committee also recommended that every public water system replace all lead service lines within 10 years.

Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched the source of its tap water from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in April 2014 to save money.

The city switched back last October after tests found high levels of lead in children’s blood samples. The water from the river was corrosive and leached more lead from the city pipes than Detroit water did. Lead is a toxic agent that can damage the human nervous system.

On Wednesday, Michigan lawmakers extended the state of emergency in Flint for four months, enabling the city to tap more state funds and coordinate a response with other authorities.

Other recommendations by the Flint panel on Friday included annual lead testing for all schools, day care centers and other public facilities; disclosure of lead service-line status in all home sales and rental contracts; creation of water advisory councils for public systems to give residents a stronger voice; and better public notification when lead problems arise.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Alden Bentley)

Flint water system improving, but still unstable

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder drinks some water as he testifies for Flint Michigan water hearing on Capitol in Washington

DETROIT (Reuters) – The drinking water in Flint, Michigan, where high lead levels led to a health crisis that drew national attention, is improving, but remains unstable, a top environmental official said Friday.

“The drinking water system is recovering,” Robert Kaplan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s acting administrator for the region that includes Flint, told local and state officials meeting in the city to discuss the crisis.

“You’ve got a dramatic decrease in the soluble lead. What we’re seeing though is particulate lead, which indicates that the system is unstable,” he told the meeting by phone.

Under the direction of a state-appointed emergency manager, Flint switched water supplies to the Flint River from Detroit’s system in 2014 to save money. The state has been criticized for its initial poor handling of the issue.

The corrosive river water leached lead, a toxic substance that can damage the nervous system, from the city’s water pipes. Flint switched back to the Detroit system last October.

“Whenever we see a positive trend in Flint’s water quality, that’s good news, but we still have much work to do to get people the quality of water they need and deserve,” Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said in a statement on Friday.

Kaplan said while the addition of chemical phosphates to recoat the pipes to inhibit corrosion is working, the almost invisible lead particles remain a random and unpredictable problem.

Kaplan said water filters reliably deal with the lead, but the best approach would be for residents to vigorously flush their home water systems by turning on all faucets and spigots and running the water to clean the sediment out and rebuild the protective phosphate coating.

He said local and state officials need to have a simple message for residents in the city of 100,000 people to take that approach.

“If we don’t have an extremely simple message, as in free water, you will not be charged for the water that you use that is related to this flushing, I’m afraid we’re not able to get that lead washed out of the system,” he said.

The state previously approved $30 million to help Flint residents pay their water bills dating back to when the switch to the Flint River was made.

Kaplan said a full recovery of Flint’s water system will take time, adding experts would not provide a time table at this point.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Newark school system set to test children for lead

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As many as 17,000 students in Newark, New Jersey schools could be tested for lead in their blood after findings showed elevated levels of the toxin have been in water in schools since at least 2012, city health officials said.

Voluntary lead testing began on Thursday in the state’s largest school district after 30 schools were found to have high levels of lead in the water fountains last week. The school district has about 35,000 students.

Health officials said the testing started with pupils at two early childhood centers, which were among schools where water fountains were shut off on March 9 after recent testing found lead levels exceeded the federal safety limit.

Officials earlier this week acknowledged the problem has plagued the district since 2012.

Lead has not been found in the water supply of the city of Newark, located 11 miles west of New York City, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) confirmed.

Still, the issue has brought comparisons to the crisis in Flint, Michigan. At a Congressional hearing on Thursday, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder testified that the lead contamination in water resulted from the cumulative failures of local, state and federal governments.

In Newark, the state DEP plans to test water at all 67 Newark public schools beginning on Saturday, starting with 13 charter schools and non-traditional school buildings, such as a athletic facilities, which were not tested this school year. It will then retest the 30 school buildings where lead levels above the federal limit of 15 parts per billion were found.

Nearly all the water taps where the highest levels were found are typically not used for drinking or food preparation, the school district said.

Lead issues date back as far as 2004, when remedial action was taken. Data collected by the district’s independent laboratory showed 12 percent of 2,067 water quality samples – collected from 2012 to 2015 – had lead levels above the federal limit requiring action.

Christopher Cerf, the new state-appointed school superintendent, declined to say why the district did not previously make public that information.

“Without intending to criticize any of my three predecessors, when I learned of the 2015 test results, I decided to address the situation differently,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “Within an hour, I had notified state and city officials and directed staff to connect with the State Department of Environmental Protection.”

(Reporting by Marcus E. Howard; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Newark Public Schools turn off fountains after tests find lead in water

New Jersey’s largest public school system has shut off the drinking fountains at some of its schools after tests found elevated lead levels in the water there, officials said Wednesday.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Newark Public Schools made the announcement in a joint news release, saying annual testing showed elevated levels of the contaminant in water collected from select taps in 30 of the district’s school buildings.

Roughly 300 samples were collected from those schools, the state DEP said, and 59 showed levels that were above a federally mandated threshold of 15 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency now requires further action, including testing, monitoring and remediation.

The water fountains will remain off until more testing is performed.

Being exposed to lead can trigger a variety of health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and children who have the element in their bodies may experience developmental delays and issues with their hearing, speech and learning.

But the severity of any adverse health effects depends on how much lead builds up in a person’s body over time, according to a New Jersey Department of Health fact sheet on lead in water.

“Typically, drinking water alone has not been associated with elevated blood lead levels,” the fact sheet states. “Combined with other sources, however, the amount of lead from drinking water may be enough to increase the chances of harmful health effects in sensitive individuals, such as infants and children.”

Newark Public Schools has 66 schools and more than 35,000 students, according to its website.

The system says it is sending out letters to parents that inform them of the test results, outline the steps being taken and assure that students will still have safe food and water while at school.

In a message on its website, the school system said it has begun placing bottled water in the affected schools “as a precautionary measure.” It has also posted signs in bathrooms that instruct people not to drink from the faucets, and supplied alternative water for cooking.

The state DEP said that the Newark Water Department, the school’s supplier, does not have lead in its water. The agency said that most cases of elevated lead levels in water involve the element leaching in through lead pipes, or other fixtures and solders that contain lead.

Flint Michigan’s Water Crisis Prompts Emergency Filters

Residents of Flint after increased pressure by the EPA are getting free water filters from the state along with donations of bottled water, as local officials take steps to ensure that residents have safe drinking water. Tests showed that the city’s water supply is causing elevated levels of lead in children. These tests followed months of complaints.  Residents are unhappy with the taste, smell and appearance of water from the Flint River and have reported rashes, hair loss and other health concerns.

After months of resisting complaints about the water, and even a press conference by local doctors warning of potential effects, officials relented this week, declaring a public health emergency.

The spike in lead occurred last spring after Flint changed the source of its drinking water. Conducted by a pediatrician with Hurley Medical Center, the newest study examined the lead levels of hundreds of children, comparing blood tests taken before and after April 2014, when Flint stopped using Detroit water and started drawing water from the Flint River as a temporary cost-saving measure.

Residents also pay some of the highest water rates in the U.S., in the community known for its economic decline. Most pay an average of $140 per month.

About 5,500 filters have already been distributed through private donations. And on Tuesday, Flint officials announced bottled water donations from a grocery chain as well as a monthlong water donation drive for distribution to senior citizen centers and schools.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced that the state will spend $1 million to buy water filters and immediately test water in public schools in Flint. He also announced expanded health exposure testing, continued free water testing, and quicker steps to ensure that water from the Flint River is effectively treated.

On Thursday, the Genesee County health department declared a public health emergency, recommending that people not drink the water unless it has been filtered and tested to rule out elevated levels of lead. More steps will be announced Friday.

County Commissioner Brenda Clack told residents that infants and children should not use the water coming from the taps in the city of Flint.

“Individuals who have respiratory conditions should not use the water, pregnant women should not use the water – it’s imperative that they not use the water,” she urged.