Salon.com > Rebecca Renner

Health agency covered up lead harm

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:52:00 +0000

From 2001 to 2004, Washington, D.C., experienced what may have been the worst lead contamination of city water on record. Tens of thousands of homes had sky-high levels of lead at the tap, and in the worst cases, tap water contained enough lead to be classified as hazardous waste. Not that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government oversight agency for public health, was worried.

A 2004 CDC report found that water contamination "might have contributed a small increase in blood lead levels." The study has been influential. School officials in New York and Seattle have used the CDC report as justification for not aggressively responding to high levels of lead in their water, and other cities have cited the report to dispel concerns about lead in tap water.

Lead on tap

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:04:00 +0000

In the spring of 2003, home inspectors from the District of Columbia's Department of Health came to Andy and Shelli Bressler's century-old house in Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood, looking for lead. Like 300,000 young children in the U.S. each year, the Bresslers' 2-year-old twins had elevated lead in their blood, which their doctor picked up during a routine checkup. Lead affects neurological development in children, and twins Adam and Casey had taken a long time to reach milestones such as walking and talking.

The inspectors came in search of the usual suspects of childhood lead poisoning -- paint chips, dust and soil. After several hours of searching, they found some paint, but it was in good condition and the boys hadn't gone near it. "The inspectors agreed that the paint didn't seem to be the problem, so we asked about the water," says Andy Bressler, who had heard that D.C.'s water had a lead problem in the past. "They told us that the D.C. water was fine."

Get the lead out

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:02:00 +0000

You could have elevated lead in your water and never know. The law monitors only a water companys system-wide performance. It is not designed to monitor the lead that comes out of taps in individual homes. If you think that your water may contain high levels of lead, have it tested. Thats the only way to be sure. If you have lead service lines (the pipes that bring water to your house) or lead solder in the plumbing, there is a greater chance of having high levels of lead in your water, so getting it tested makes sense. Here are six simple tips to help you get the lead out.

1. Call your water company and ask if there are lead pipes or lead service connections in the distribution system. Then ask about your house. The company should be able to tell you or at least tell you they are not sure. Lead pipe inventories can be unreliable. Also, if you had plumbing work done before 1986, you probably have lead solder, perhaps the biggest source of lead in drinking water nationwide. There are also rare cases in which plumbers used lead solder illegally after 1986. Be sure and ask your plumber about it.