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Old Posted Aug 20, 2019, 12:28 AM
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How Newark got lead in its water, and what it means for the rest of America

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Close to half of Newark homes tested have lead in their water. Residents are outraged.
by Sarah Sax
Dec 18 2018, 10:51am

When Newark announced it was handing out 40,000 filters to residents believed to be at risk of high lead levels in their water, it came as a surprise to some. This was in October, and for more than a year, the city had said Newark's water was “absolutely safe to drink,” while robocalls to residents assured them their water was not contaminated.

The city’s messages did include an important caveat: that “the only high lead readings were taken inside older one- and two-family homes that have lead pipes leading from the city's pure water into those homes.” But the clarifications usually came after messaging touting the water’s safety. For many residents, some of whom didn’t know what a lead service line was and whether their homes and buildings had one or not, that wasn’t the message that stuck...

Now, recent research by the government itself suggests Newark does indeed have a water crisis on its hands. A study commissioned by the city indicates that a change in the water chemistry at their Pequannock water treatment plant caused lead service lines to leach and contaminate the water in as many as 22,000 households’ taps, starting in early 2017. And recent tests showed close to half of 180 households monitored had dangerous levels of lead in their water....

...In 2015, more than 1,000 community water systems in the United States serving almost 4 million people were in violation of the federal Lead and Copper Rule, according to a study done by the NRDC. And if the 5 parts per billion were adopted nationally, many more cities would have a crisis on their hands.

“Lead Service Lines are ticking timebombs,” said Olson. “All it takes is a change in a city's water chemistry — they change their disinfectant or a storm comes through and changes the water balance — and it affects the lead service lines. The only way you can avoid this is pulling them out.”
Source/read more here: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y...est-of-america
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  #2  
Old Posted Aug 20, 2019, 1:18 AM
floor23 floor23 is offline
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May explain why this country appears to be going batsh!t crazy at times. A sizable chunk of the population is drinking water with lead in it.

Just one more reason to justify drinking beer when traveling across the country
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Old Posted Aug 20, 2019, 2:10 AM
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Originally Posted by floor23 View Post
May explain why this country appears to be going batsh!t crazy at times. A sizable chunk of the population is drinking water with lead in it.

Just one more reason to justify drinking beer when traveling across the country
good news for you:

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In the mid-1970s, the average American child under the age of 5 had a blood lead level of 14 micrograms per deciliter. The good news is that by 2014 it had fallen dramatically, to 0.84 micrograms per deciliter, largely because of the banning of lead in paint and the phaseout of lead in gasoline, among other measures.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now considers a blood lead level in children of 5 micrograms per deciliter and higher to be a “reference level.” This measure is intended to identify children at higher risk and set off communitywide prevention activities.
Kids in NYC tend to have high lead levels though..
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Old Posted Aug 21, 2019, 12:12 AM
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Originally Posted by floor23 View Post
May explain why this country appears to be going batsh!t crazy at times. A sizable chunk of the population is drinking water with lead in it.

Just one more reason to justify drinking beer when traveling across the country
That's what I do when I'm way South of Da Border!!!.

Tres soles for agua.
Dos soles for Cusqueña.

Tough decision there, I'm going with a Cusqueña, por favor!
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  #5  
Old Posted Aug 20, 2019, 2:08 AM
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well the flint crisis was a hoax, so I'll be a bit skeptical first.

read this NY TIMES article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/o...ing-water.html
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Old Posted Aug 20, 2019, 2:11 AM
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Old Posted Aug 21, 2019, 2:11 PM
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Pretty sure people were sniffing leaded gasoline in the air not that long ago, lead expose was definitely much worse than it is now. (I guess it might explain why these older generations are batshit crazy sociopaths though)

It's frightening how much lead based pip infrastructure exists in this country and we just sorta hope that it doesn't start leaching in our water. All of you drink and bathe out of lead pipes. I don't know how you're going to replace pipes in a large city like Newark in any reasonable amount of time.
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Old Posted Aug 21, 2019, 2:20 PM
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now considers a blood lead level in children of 5 micrograms per deciliter and higher to be a “reference level.” This measure is intended to identify children at higher risk and set off communitywide prevention activities.
when my daughter was a baby and had her first lead test, she came back at 5.5 micrograms per deciliter (just barely over the "reference level"), so we had our home tested for lead.

it turned out the back stairs of our 6-flat had some old lead paint that we were unwittingly tracking into our home ever time we walked up those stairs.

after $5,500 of lead paint abatement, her lead levels subsequently dropped and she's been under 5 on her lead tests ever since. her younger brother who was born after the lead paint removal has never had a lead level over 5, so it appeared to have worked.
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