…it was determined that corrosive river water was drawing lead from aging pipes.
Weaver was elected in November, unseating the incumbent mayor who led the city during the public health emergency and blamed state and federal agencies for the water problems. Weaver had promised while campaigning to issue an emergency declaration.
County commissioners will consider Weaver’s declaration at a Jan. 4 meeting. She needs approval from county and state officials before possibly getting aid from the federal government.
LeeAnn Walters, a Flint resident and mother of 4-year-old twins, took every precaution after blood tests revealed that the level of lead in one of her sons had soared after the switch to Flint River.
“I was hysterical,” Walters told the Free Press. “I cried when they gave me my first lead report.”
She had feared lead was the problem when her whole family developed rashes and her son stopped gaining weight.
Now, Walters said, when her children experience problems as they grow up, she will always wonder whether things would have been different — if their lives would have been better — if it weren’t for the water.
A class action federal lawsuit has been filed against the city citing specific experiences of a few plaintiffs and their families, all of whom claim they have been challenged by similar health ailments since high levels of lead and copper entered their bloodstreams.
These conditions include skin lesions, hair loss, chemical-induced hypertension, vision loss and depression. Of the four families described in the complaint, two had ceased to drink Flint water after a certain point — and used it only for washing and cooking — but still said they were exposed to many of the same ill effects.
Flint, Michigan Declared State Of Emergency Over Too Much Lead In Drinking Water was originally published on blackdoctor.org
