Hi, I grew up in Flint and have been following this closely for a while now. First I wanted to thank you guys so much for this, and for posting so many updates on flintwaterstudy.org. I really think you have done a great thing here for the people of Flint. My questions:
I've seen a lot of people in various comment threads putting the onus on homeowners in Flint to update the plumbing in their houses, and because the issue was corroding pipes, that the city/state is not responsible for the damage, the homeowners are. Is the plumbing in houses the main source of lead, or are there city-owned/operated pipes that have this issue?
I've also seen a letter from the governor's office that states that childeren in Flint have had elevated blood lead levels in the past as well, do you know if that is the case? Do you know what a normal percentage of a city's population with elevated blood lead levels is? Do you know a good public resource for information like this? If someone unknowingly had elevated blood lead levels as a child, would they be able to tell as an adult? (Asking for...a friend...who grew up in what looks like a hot spot for high lead in water)
Now that the city has switched back to Detroit water, is the amount of lead in the water in Flint homes going back down? Has the switch to the Flint river caused lasting damage to the system that might only be fixed by new pipes?
While you were conducting this study, at what point did it switch from "oh here's an interesting thing to research, maybe something's up" to "oh crap, sound the alarm because this is severely dangerous"?
OwMySocks34 karma
Hi, I grew up in Flint and have been following this closely for a while now. First I wanted to thank you guys so much for this, and for posting so many updates on flintwaterstudy.org. I really think you have done a great thing here for the people of Flint. My questions:
I've seen a lot of people in various comment threads putting the onus on homeowners in Flint to update the plumbing in their houses, and because the issue was corroding pipes, that the city/state is not responsible for the damage, the homeowners are. Is the plumbing in houses the main source of lead, or are there city-owned/operated pipes that have this issue?
I've also seen a letter from the governor's office that states that childeren in Flint have had elevated blood lead levels in the past as well, do you know if that is the case? Do you know what a normal percentage of a city's population with elevated blood lead levels is? Do you know a good public resource for information like this? If someone unknowingly had elevated blood lead levels as a child, would they be able to tell as an adult? (Asking for...a friend...who grew up in what looks like a hot spot for high lead in water)
Now that the city has switched back to Detroit water, is the amount of lead in the water in Flint homes going back down? Has the switch to the Flint river caused lasting damage to the system that might only be fixed by new pipes?
While you were conducting this study, at what point did it switch from "oh here's an interesting thing to research, maybe something's up" to "oh crap, sound the alarm because this is severely dangerous"?
Thank you again, your work has been amazing.
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