{"id":1867,"date":"2016-03-14T15:38:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cuchicago.edu\/spectator\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2016-03-14T15:38:14","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:38:14","slug":"lead-in-the-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=1867","title":{"rendered":"Lead in the water"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gretchen Teske<\/em><\/p>\n

\"unnamed\"<\/a>Photo credit: pennlive.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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While the country is in panic over the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Philadelphia residents are concerned for their own. An expert claims the lead levels within the water are \u201cworse than Flint\u201d and the danger this poses for the town\u2019s residents is extensive. As the poorest, large city in the United States, Philadelphians cannot afford the fight against the main culprit: lead based paint and pipes.<\/p>\n

In 1978 the federal government banned the use of lead-based paint due to health risk. As many as ninety two percent of the city\u2019s homes were built before 1978 and consequently may expose residents to lead in both or either. Replacing the paint is an extensive, and sometimes expensive, project that often requires a professional to accomplish. Replacing pipes can be just as costly, if not more, because the pipes lead from in the house to the street where they connect with the main water supply.<\/p>\n

City officials are adamant their water is safe, however the numbers of children who tested positively for elevated levels of lead in their blood, do not agree. On a virtual pamphlet, the city advertises, \u201cPhiladelphia\u2019s 3,000-mile water distribution system does not contain lead products and the treated drinking water supply is virtually lead-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, on the cities official website, the following statement is made: \u201cso far, our test results show that our treatment techniques keep lead levels to a minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"vox\"<\/a>Pennsylvania Dept. of Health|Credit: Sarah Frostenson<\/p>\n

State health officials in Pennsylvania are pointing the blame at the EPA. State health officials collect poisoning statistics, but the government agency is in charge of testing the water for lead. However, the statistics they use are acquired from the Philadelphia water department. The department claims the practices they use have not been changed since 1922 and are calling on the EPA to issue an updated method to testing for lead in the water.<\/p>\n

The process of checking for clean, lead-free water is quite unclear to customers as the methods they are told to use are not proven to be entirely accurate, according to the state health department. Consumers are advised to clean their aerators but confirmation on this practice is lacking from EPA officials. If the aerator is off, the lead will be transferred into a sample bottle and can be tracked to minimize its exposure to the area.<\/p>\n

Pre-flushing of the faucets is also advised so conditions can be normalized and contained in all situations. However, Marc Edwards, professor at Virginia Tech University, is strongly opposed to this process. Edwards claims the act of running the water will clean the lead out of the pipes and it will not be present for testing the following day. The next day when testing is done on the pipes, a false sense of lack of lead will be pronounced because it was all washed out the day before.<\/p>\n

The safety and wellbeing of children is of major concern however city officials feel this issue has been taken care of. In the past two decades, blood-lead levels have dropped significantly but the city still continues to struggle with a water-lead problem. A 2014 study showed that more than 10% of Philadelphia children had lead-blood levels high than the national average. This is over four times higher than the national average of 2.5% of children. Nearly 535,000 US children between the ages of one and five are affected and data proves that over 3,800 of these children live in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The only thing clear to residents is the rising issue and lack of resolve from the state. A hearing for the current water testing procedure has been planned, but no date has been set. For now, residents are advised to continue the water testing practices outlined in the city\u2019s handbook until further action is taken.<\/p>\n

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photo credit:\u00a0Sarah Rice\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gretchen Teske Photo credit: pennlive.com   While the country is in panic over the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Philadelphia residents are concerned for their own. An expert claims the lead levels within the water are \u201cworse than Flint\u201d and the danger this poses for the town\u2019s residents is extensive. As the poorest, large […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":1871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[210,462,568,723],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-events","tag-crisis","tag-lead-poisoning","tag-philadelphia","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}