Lead poisoning even at low levels in children creates slow learners, lower IQ s, poor attention spans, and other negative neurological and behavioral conditions. Higher levels of lead toxicity causes low energy, stunted growth, liver and kidney damage, and perhaps death.
Within the matrix of approved modern medicine, the long term effects of children affected by lead poisoning are irreversible. Of course, there are methods not approved and approved but scorned and rarely practiced by MD s such as homeopathy that may be affective.
But most use their private and/or public insurance for MDs and their clinics to pay for ineffective treatments. So the general consensus within allopathic or “conventional medicine” is there is little that can be done at best to reverse the effects of lead poisoning during childhood.
That’s why lead was banned from paints and as a gasoline additive years ago.
Flint’s Costly Effort to Save Money
Flint, Michigan was once a prosperous manufacturing city with a population of around 200,000. That changed when General Motors (GM) shut down it’s largest Flint plant. The population dwindled to around 100,000, and the city lost a lot of its tax base.
City officials began using desperate means to cut its costs. One of them was to create their own municipal water system instead of buying Detroit’s water with its escalating prices. In 2013, Flint decided to join a new, regional water system that also drew water from Lake Huron like Detroit did, which would save the city millions per year.
But that regional plant hadn’t been built yet. So in their haste to separate from Detroit’s water plant and its rising costs, the city decided to suck their water out directly from the Flint River in 2014. Almost immediately residents began complaining that the water was cloudy and smelly.
Even a GM engine plant reported that the Flint City water was corrosive. They had tanks of water shipped in. Other residents were reporting problems from even showering. The school system used bottled water to clean and cook the food. More children were seeing pediatricians for symptoms related to lead poisoning.
But city officials assured them the water was safe. They also claimed state officials tested the water and it was okay by federal standards. Unfortunately, their testing turned out to be inadequate and insufficient. And it took a mother of two who had purchased
One city official, Jerry Ambrose, asserted the complaints about the water were creating a “perception problem”. The citizens weren’t buying any perception problem explanations. Demonstrators gathered at City Hall demanding a return to the Detroit system.
Resident Claire McClinton voiced the demonstrators mood: “I mean, what do we have to do to get them to turn the water back on to Detroit?” asked McClinton. “We survived bacteria. We’ve had boil water advisories as a result. They put too much chloride in the water, we’ve got trihalomethanes, and it’s just been one disaster after another.”
“The city water is safe to drink,” said then-mayor Dayne Walling. “My family and I drink it and use it every day.” Dwayne Walling is no longer mayor thanks to the final upshot of the Flint water crisis.
But it took the action of a mother of two young children, Lee Anne Walters, to finally turn the tide and wake up City Hall. She who had a small swimming pool built on her small home lot, observed that her kids and others developed rashes from playing in her pool.
After several superficial medical attempts to cure one of her son’s chronic rash, a blood test showed he was indeed suffering from lead poisoning.
So Lee Anne had an EPA inspector check out samples of water from her faucet and pools. He wasn’t allowed to officially release the report, but Lee Anne had Michigan ACLU reporter Curt Gayette call that person and get his findings: Her water’s lead levels were beyond hazardous.
Gayette plastered the leaked report all over the internet. Then Lee Anne used the leaked report to get action from the state’s EPA department. She and several who went to Lansing, Michigan were basically ignored and treated as though they knew nothing.
State officials claimed the leaked EPA report was from a rogue inspector acting outside EPA guidelines. Guess that makes the scientific analysis invalid, right?
Lone Virginia Professor Rides in to Set Flint Straight
Marc Edwards, PhD is an environmental engineer, and a professor at Virginia Tech who has specialized in old water corrosion systems. After testing over 30,000 homes, he had never seen any home with higher lead levels than Lee Anne Walters’ home.
Edwards was very upset about the situation in Flint after Lee Anne had called him and explained the water’s odors and brackish color, the EPA leaked report, and the reported health issues. He was amazed at how local and state officials ignored the obvious.
So he and four of his grad students drove to Flint, collected many samples from different homes, and determined they were all above acceptable lead levels. Then he explained how the problem occurres: The city didn’t have the anti-corrosive treatment capability Detroit had.
By treating their own water without proper anti-corrosive treatments, the water was sucking up iron and making it brownish-orange as well as leeching lead from it’s own distribution system. He explained this on the City Hall lawn to some reporters and several residents. Still, no changes were made.
Eventually, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who heads the Pediatric Residency program at Flint’s Hurley Medical Center, began analyzing lead blood levels of children and comparing them to before the Flint water supply switch and after.
Dr. Atisha had other doctors confirm her findings to make sure. The city of Flint funded the Hurley Medical Center and she wanted to be prudent with avoiding lost funding for no reason. The study indicated a two-fold rise in children’s blood lead levels since the switch from Detroit’s water to Flint River.
It hasn’t all been lead either. The corrosive activity of Flint River’s water leeched excess copper as well, and some experienced the unhealthy effects of copper poisoning. And the strain of having to use bottled water for bathing children has had its effect also.
Then the Hurley Medical Center got on board with Flint residents to demand the city switch back to the Detroit water supply immediately. And then it finally happened. But the lingering health effects remain. That’s why Flint’s new mayor, Karen Weaver, has appealed for federal aid in December of 2015 to help Flint overcome its “man-made disaster”.
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By Paul Fassa via Real Farmacy
Paul Fassa is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. His pet peeves are the Medical Mafia’s control over health and the food industry and government regulatory agencies’ corruption. Paul’s contributions to the health movement and global paradigm shift are well received by truth seekers. Visit his blog by following this link and follow him on Twitter here
Sources:
http://www.vox.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com
https://public.health.oregon.gov
http://michiganradio.org
