Flint Water Crisis Analysis

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Living in Grand Rapids, MI, less than two hours from Flint, I thought that I was quite familiar with the Flint Water Crisis. It was in every paper and on NPR nearly every day. However, reading these articles gave me a whole new view of the crisis. What became obvious was that no one was willing to take blame for the issue. This was a complete failure and no one wants to be the person responsible for it. No one wants to be the person who caused elevated lead levels in children to save a few dollars. This blame shifting was most obvious in the governmental reports. The letter from the EPA is all about what they need the city of flint to do to ameliorate the problem. For example, in the first paragraph the letter states “it is necessary for …show more content…

It discusses the health issues of some of the residents of the city, as well as stating that elevated lead levels were being shown as early as 2014.3 Officials during this time were still trying to convince residents that the water was safe to drink but many residents quit drinking the water anyway. As compared to the other articles, the newspaper article does a fairly thorough job of covering the Flint water crisis. It even touches on some of the other issues in Flint, such as its economic issues.
When a situation such as this arises, it is important for public health workers and public officials to work together to find a solution. The reason the Flint water crises got so out of control was because public officials did everything they could to avoid the issue, and when that become impossible, to shift the blame to other agencies. The fact that public health agencies need to work together is addressed in an article entitled “Public Health 2.0” by Dr. David Dyjack. Dr. Dyjack states that “we need to rethink our …business, which will drive us to become more…familiar with our colleagues”. …show more content…

Researchers at Virginia Tech sampled the lead in homes in Flint and found that 40% of homes had over 5 ppb of lead, and 16% of homes had over 15ppb6 which is the level at which the EPA recommends children and pregnant women avoid drinking the water. According to our textbooks, children exposed to lead can exhibit decreased intelligence, behavioral problems, and gastrointestinal issues.7Lead poisoning, leading to seizures and comas, can occur as well with very high exposures. Lead exposure can have terrible consequences, and for government agencies to ignore it for as long as they did is

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