D.C. Lead Study Author Says Our Water is Still a Problem
So the big, big, big story on the front page of this morning's Washington Post was by Carol Leonnig, who obtained a copy of a forthcoming study that shows that hundreds of District children had dangerously high levels of lead in their blood during the WASA lead crisis earlier this decade.
The study, based on a detailed analysis of thousands of children’s blood tests from 2000 to 2003, contradicts the public assurances issued by federal and D.C. health officials starting in 2004. At the time, although officials acknowledged that the amount of lead in city water were at record-breaking levels, they said repeatedly that they found no measurable impact on the general public’s health.This is seriously scary shit, especially for parents and pregnant women living in older homes in the neighborhoods identified as being the most affected: Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights, the southeastern portion of Capitol Hill, a large swath of Ward 4 along Georgia Avenue, and Northeast Washington's Langdon Park.
In a WaPo live chat today, one of the authors of the study, professor Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech, answered the questions of freaked out District parents. The most chilling question and response had to do with the reality of our water quality today.
Washington, D.C. : A personal question - if you lived in one of the "high risk" neighborhoods identified, even now that the problem has been supposedly remedied, would you drink bottled water? Purified water? What precautions would you take?Thanks for doing this chat.
Marc Edwards: If I lived in D.C., and I lived in a home built before 1987, I would not allow my children (younger than age 6) to drink unfiltered tap water (or use it for cooked food or drinks).
If you have allowed your young children to drink DC water, the chance of significant problems is very small, but it is not non-existent. We do know that even in very recent testing, a significant percentage of children in D.C. with elevated blood lead have water that tests above 15 ppb. That does not "prove" that water is the major source. But it is still a problem that should concern you.