Flint Weighs Scope of Harm to Children Caused by Lead in Water
FLINT, Mich. — Quayana Towns’s 2-month-old daughter wriggled on an exam table last week as her pediatrician ticked off questions that have become essential for every parent of young children here.
“So what are you guys doing for water — what are you drinking?” asked the doctor, Mona Hanna-Attisha.
“I have a whole bunch of bottled water that I picked up,” said Ms. Towns, 26, assuring the doctor that the family had been drinking it for a few months, since the gravity of Flint’s water crisis came to light.
“And before that you were using tap water?”
“Yes,” Ms. Towns replied, as her other child, a 1-year-old, King, toddled around.
Dr. Hanna-Attisha would waste no time adding King and his sister, Taeyana, to a new database of children under 6 who may have been exposed to lead in Flint’s water, a group she said she believes could number 8,000.
Of all the concerns raised by the contamination of Flint’s water supply, and the failure of the state and federal governments to promptly address the crisis after it began nearly two years ago, none is more chilling than the possibility that children in this tattered city may have suffered irreversible damage to their developing brains and nervous systems from exposure to lead.
Residents and advocates have expressed outrage over the government’s failure to protect Flint’s children, something many of them say would not have happened if the city were largely white. Adding to their injury, they say, are the harsh conditions of poverty that have already placed ample obstacles in their young lives
READ MORE: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/flint-wei...
“So what are you guys doing for water — what are you drinking?” asked the doctor, Mona Hanna-Attisha.
“I have a whole bunch of bottled water that I picked up,” said Ms. Towns, 26, assuring the doctor that the family had been drinking it for a few months, since the gravity of Flint’s water crisis came to light.
“And before that you were using tap water?”
“Yes,” Ms. Towns replied, as her other child, a 1-year-old, King, toddled around.
Dr. Hanna-Attisha would waste no time adding King and his sister, Taeyana, to a new database of children under 6 who may have been exposed to lead in Flint’s water, a group she said she believes could number 8,000.
Of all the concerns raised by the contamination of Flint’s water supply, and the failure of the state and federal governments to promptly address the crisis after it began nearly two years ago, none is more chilling than the possibility that children in this tattered city may have suffered irreversible damage to their developing brains and nervous systems from exposure to lead.
Residents and advocates have expressed outrage over the government’s failure to protect Flint’s children, something many of them say would not have happened if the city were largely white. Adding to their injury, they say, are the harsh conditions of poverty that have already placed ample obstacles in their young lives
READ MORE: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/flint-wei...
This is what Republicans will do, they will LIE to your face because you stand in the way of them and profits.