New York Times:
“WE have been rightfully outraged by the lead poisoning of children in Flint, Mich. — an outrage that one health expert called “state-sponsored child abuse.”“We are indeed all Flint,” says Dr. Philip Landrigan, a professor of preventive medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Lead poisoning continues to be a silent epidemic in the United States.”
But lead poisoning goes far beyond Flint, and in many parts of America seems to be even worse.
“Lead in Flint is the tip of the iceberg,” notes Dr. Richard J. Jackson, former director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Flint is a teachable moment for America.”
In Flint, 4.9 percent of children tested for lead turned out to have elevated levels. That’s inexcusable. But in 2014 in New York State outside of New York City, the figure was 6.7 percent. In Pennsylvania, 8.5 percent. On the west side of Detroit, one-fifth of the children tested in 2014 had lead poisoning. In Iowa for 2012, the most recent year available, an astonishing 32 percent of children tested had elevated lead levels. (I calculated most of these numbers from C.D.C. data.)
Across America, 535,000 children ages 1 through 5 suffer lead poisoning, by C.D.C. estimates.”
Lead is in our sports equipment: lead fishing tackle and lead bullets. Where does that lead end up? It has been estimated that 200 loons die each year in Minnesota due to ingestion of toxic fishing tackle. Hunters and their kids ingest lead from game killed with lead bullets, thereby lowering their IQ for the right to use cheaper toxic ammunition when copper bullets are better and nontoxic. Industry threatens governments attempting to regulate lead in these products, as they profit from degraded environments and brain-damaged customers. Gold Bless America! Profit over People!
