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The Flint water crisis and its health consequences

The water crisis that gripped the city of Flint, Michigan, in 2014 and 2015—and which is still felt to the present day—became one of the most notorious and scandalous public health disasters in recent United States history. The immediate cause was the contamination of the municipal water supply with toxic lead and dangerous bacteria, but the true cause is widely considered to be colossal mismanagement and unsound cost-cutting measures imposed on the city. Compounding the scandal is the fact that the population of Flint is disproportionately poor and African-American, suggesting to many critics that such mismanagement might not have occurred in a place with a wealthier, whiter population.

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 At least 2% of US public water systems are like Flint’s – Americans just don’t hear about them

However, even Flint’s highest levels were not atypical for water systems that have problems. Most reports of elevated lead levels cluster in the range between 15 and 20 ppb.

 Flint Is Still Shaken by its Water Crisis—and Residents Are Experiencing Long-Term Mental-Health Issues

The crisis is far from a distant memory in Flint. According to a new survey of nearly 2,000 adult community members published in JAMA Network Open on Sept. 20, residents were still struggling from the enduring mental health impact of the crisis, five years later.

 The scandal over Flint’s water is a tale of poverty and race

Two books explore the causes and consequences of a public-health disaster.

 What the Water Crisis in Flint shows about Racism in Public Health

Since 2014, Flint, Michigan, just about 60 miles outside of Detroit, has been without clean water, creating a mountain of problems for thousands of residents, ranging from skin rashes to developmental issues and from stress to fatalities. Though Flint has moved closer to a solution due to investments in the city’s water infrastructure, residents are still hesitant to trust the municipal water supply. The implications of the crisis will leave a permanent mark of health problems and distrust in Flint. It should have never gone this far.

Articles of Interest

The Flint water crisis, explained

For months, residents of Flint, Michigan, couldn't get anyone to pay attention to the problems with their water supply. Then, suddenly, the whole world was watching.

'He Doesn't Trust Water.' 5 Years Later, Flint Sees Few Signs of Relief

It’s too hopeful to think the Flint, Mich., water crisis is over. Five years ago this month, the city began using the corrosive Flint River as its main source of water, which ate away the city’s pipes and leached lead into the drinking water of thousands of residents. Eighteen months later, the city reconnected to Detroit’s clean water supply after studies confirmed what parents had been telling officials: that lead from their taps was poisoning their families. Since then, the state of Michigan has declared Flint’s water safe to drink. Thousands of lead-tainted pipes have been replaced. More than a dozen officials connected to one of the worst health disasters in U.S. history are facing criminal charges.

Crisis in Flint shows how far we’ve come on lead. And how far we need to go

Forty years ago, the typical American child under 5 had a blood-lead level of 15 micrograms per deciliter. That was considered healthy. Today, children with a third that much lead in their blood are considered in danger — as in Flint, Mich., where public health officials are grappling with the fallout from contaminated water that has left dozens of kids with elevated blood-lead levels.

Environmental Racism: A Public Health Crisis

The water crisis in Flint, a majority-Black city of about 100,000, is the “most egregious” example of environmental injustice and racism in recent history, says Paul Mohai, a University of Michigan professor who has studied the U.S. environmental justice movement for decades.

Five Years After Water Crisis, Nearly 1 in 4 Flint Residents Has PTSD

New findings also indicate that 1 in 5 Flint residents may have experienced depression within the past year, underscoring the need for additional mental health resources in a community that continues to grapple with the long-term effects of the public health disaster.

Flint Wasn’t Allowed Democracy

That’s part of the reason nobody acted when its water was poisoned.

Flint Water Crisis

The city of Flint, Michigan, suffered a man-made public health crisis caused by failed public policy. Toxic levels of lead in Flint’s drinking water beginning in early 2014 harmed the developing brains of young children and caused massive hardship for city residents, who were advised to avoid using the water and have had to rely on bottled water for daily needs for several years. The catastrophe made Flint a national symbol of environmental injustice

Flint water crisis and its impact

The impact of the Flint water crisis on that city and the residents there is immeasurable. You have a city that’s predominantly a community of color and low-income affected by a level of environmental degradation in ways that this country has not seen in a very long time. We’re talking about an entire city being poisoned by the water due to the negligence of its government.

Flint's water crisis: what went wrong

After the water supply was found to contain high levels of lead, evidence is mounting that officials ignored or neglected indicators of a growing crisis

Flint: a day by the bottle

In the wake of the city's water crisis, residents have turned to bottled H2O.

Flint’s Water Crisis Started 5 Years Ago. It’s Not Over.

Pipes are now being replaced and officials say the water is safe, but residents still worry, drink bottled water and doubt their elected leaders.

Health Effects of the Water Crisis

While Flint residents began complaining about water quality, citing symptoms such as skin irritation and rashes, immediately after the city switched to using the Flint River for drinking water, these concerns were not taken seriously until pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha released her report on childhood blood lead levels (BLL) in the Flint community in September of 2015.

Lead-Laced Water In Flint: A Step-By-Step Look At The Makings Of A Crisis

The problem began when the city switched its water supply in 2014. Almost immediately, residents of Flint — a majority-black city where 40 percent of people live in poverty — started complaining about the quality of the water. City and state officials denied for months that there was a serious problem.

Miss Michigan on Her Viral Flint Comment: 'If I Don't Stand up, Who Will?'

I also knew I only had eight seconds to get my message across, so I had to be concise as possible. When I said, "From the state with 84 percent of the United States' fresh water but none for its residents to drink, I am Miss Michigan Emily Sioma," it wasn’t meant to be an education lesson. I used hyperbole because I wanted to make a statement that the water crisis isn’t just about Flint residents anymore.

Nine-Year-Old Mari Copeny Is Still Fighting For Clean Water In Flint

The fourth-grade activist has met with three US presidents, celebrities, and more in her quest to save her hometown's water supply.

Revealed: the Flint water poisoning charges that never came to light

The former criminal prosecution team investigating the Flint water crisis was building a racketeering case against state officials. Then the team was dismantled.

Series of Mistakes Tainted Flint Water

Blame for water crisis is spread among Michigan city’s emergency managers, state environmental officials, the mayor, the governor and the EPA.

The science behind the Flint water crisis: corrosion of pipes, erosion of trust

Flint’s recent water crisis is a stinging reminder that the infrastructure we often take for granted has many vulnerabilities. The crisis also underscores the complexity of providing communities with safe, high-quality potable water.

Who Poisoned Flint?

Michigan’s state government took control of Flint with an emergency manager—then shrugged at its water crisis, saying it was a problem for the city to fix.

Resources

6 years after water crisis began, what has changed in Flint — and what hasn’t

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, exposed major health and environmental concerns for residents and prompted new scrutiny of access to clean drinking water in the U.S.

CDC

On April 25, 2014, the City of Flint, Michigan changed their municipal water supply source from the Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River. The switch caused water distribution pipes to corrode and leach lead and other contaminants into municipal drinking water. In October 2016, Flint residents were advised not to drink the municipal tap water unless it had been filtered through a NSF International approved filter certified to remove lead. Although the city reconnected to the original Detroit water system that same month, the potential damage was already done and a state of emergency was declared on January 16, 2016.