The ill-fated decision two years ago to switch drinking water sources in Flint, Mich., resulted in a sudden spike in the number of young children with elevated blood lead levels, according to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Public health officials have long known that the city’s water crisis left nearly 9,000 children 6 and younger exposed to lead, a toxic contaminant that can cause permanent learning disabilities, behavioral problems and, at higher levels, a number of diseases. But to better understand the impact Flint’s tainted water had on the city’s most vulnerable population, CDC officials looked at lead tests before, during and after the switch.
Researchers found that Flint children had a 50 percent higher chance of having elevated blood lead levels after the switch in 2014. After the city switched back to Detroit water in late 2015, the percentage of children with elevated blood lead results “returned to levels seen before the water switch took place,” the agency said.
“This crisis was entirely preventable, and a startling reminder of the critical need to eliminate all sources of lead from our children’s environment,” Patrick Breysee, director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, said in a statement Friday.
The lead problems in Flint’s water began after the city switched to the Flint River for its water supply beginning in April 2014, as part of a cost-cutting move. State regulators failed to ensure that anti-corrosion chemicals were added to the water, which became contaminated when lead leached into it from aging underground pipes. The city eventually switched back to Detroit water in October 2015.
While there is no level of lead in the blood that is considered safe, CDC considers anything greater than 5 micrograms per deciter as a “level of concern.” Public health officials continue to recommend that all children under age 6 living in Flint have their blood tested for lead.