10 Years After Flint, The Fight To Replace Lead Pipes Continues

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

Ten years ago, Flint, Mich. switched water sources to the Flint River. The lack of corrosion control in the pipes caused lead to leach into the water supply of tens of thousands of residents. Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha recognized a public health crisis in the making and gathered data proving the negative health impact on Flint's young children. In doing so, she and community organizers in Flint sparked a national conversation about lead in the U.S. water system that persists today.

Today on the show, host Emily Kwong and science correspondent Pien Huang talk about the state of Flint and other cities with lead pipes. Efforts to replace these pipes hinge on proposed changes to the EPA's Lead and Copper Rule.

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Transcript

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0:21.2	listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:25.0	Hey Shortwaavers.
0:27.0	Emily Kwong here.
0:28.0	So 10 years ago, Dr. Mona Hannah Attisha was a pediatrician at Hurley Medical Center living in Flint, Michigan.
0:36.6	The city was near bankruptcy and to save money, Flint decided to switch water sources
0:41.7	from Lake Huron to the
0:43.0	flint river on April 25th, 2014.
0:46.0	We had greenish and brownish water
0:48.0	and it smelled weird and he was giving people's rashes
0:50.0	and they were losing hair.
0:52.0	And families in fl Flint kept telling her something's not right with the water.
0:56.3	They were asking was it okay to use this tap water to mix their babies' formula.
1:03.0	State and city officials said there was nothing to worry about.
1:06.1	And Mona told her patients the same thing.
1:08.9	For a year and a half, I was telling my patients that of course everything's okay like how
1:15.2	how good drinking water would not be okay like this is America it is the 21st
1:20.0	century all the folks in charge despite all these concerns, were saying everything was okay.
	...

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