Preventing another lead (Pb) in drinking water crisis: Lessons from the Washington D.C. and Flint MI contamination events

Roy, Siddhartha; Edwards, Marc

doi:10.1016/j.coesh.2018.10.002

Cited by 68 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…With the legacy use of Pb plumbing in the 1960s and 1970s (and even through 1986 in Chicago), there is every reason to assert that Pb exposure may continue to occur, and in the aftermath of Flint, there is an unshakable perception of a problem undermining trust in drinking water and government (15,16). In the Washington, DC 2001 to 2004 water crisis, there was a lack of understanding of the effect of chlorine disinfectant on protective tetravalent lead oxide stability (2,12,17). The switch to chloramine disinfectant (electro-) chemically destabilized the protective tetravalent lead oxide scale, resulting in unsafe soluble Pb accumulation in the water (17).…”

Section: How Flint Happened How It Happens Today and How To Stop Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Washington, DC 2001 to 2004 water crisis, there was a lack of understanding of the effect of chlorine disinfectant on protective tetravalent lead oxide stability (2,12,17). The switch to chloramine disinfectant (electro-) chemically destabilized the protective tetravalent lead oxide scale, resulting in unsafe soluble Pb accumulation in the water (17). Serious lead contamination concerns in public schools have occurred in Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Seattle (18).…”

Section: How Flint Happened How It Happens Today and How To Stop Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The pervasive threat of lead (Pb) in drinking water: Unmasking and pursuing scientific factors that govern lead release

Santucci

Scully

2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The Flint water crisis raised questions about the factors resulting in unacceptable soluble lead concentrations in the city’s drinking water. Although water treatment strategies, failure to follow regulations, and unethical behavior were all factors, knowledge deficits at the intersection of several scientific fields also contributed to the crisis. Pursuit of opportunities to address unresolved scientific questions can help avert future lead poisoning disasters. Such advances will enable scientifically based, data-driven risk assessments that inform decisions involving drinking water systems. In this way, managers and decision makers can anticipate, monitor, and prevent future lead in water crises.

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Section: How Flint Happened How It Happens Today and How To Stop Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Flint Happened How It Happens Today and How To Stop Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pervasive threat of lead (Pb) in drinking water: Unmasking and pursuing scientific factors that govern lead release

Santucci

Scully

2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…It should be noted that the selected contaminants are of great environmental concern. Indeed, US-Environmental Protection Agency is keeping a watchful eye onto possible Pb contamination after water crises induced by Pb contamination into piped waters (Roy et al, 2019;Levallois et al, 2018) and in Europe 98/83/EU Directive for water intended for human consumption is currently under discussion and Pb concentration now regulated at 10 µg/L is suggested to be lowered at 5 µg/L. On the other hand, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin are fluoroquinolonic antibiotics, with ciprofloxacin included in the EU Watch List (EU Watchlist)..…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional graphene oxide/biopolymer composite aerogels for microcontaminants removal from drinking water

et al. 2020

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Due to water depletion and increasing level of pollution from standard and emerging contaminants, the development of more efficient purification materials and technology for drinking water treatment is a crucial challenge to be addressed in the near future. Graphene oxide (GO) has been pointed as one of the most promising materials to build structure and devices for new adsorbents and filtration systems. Here, we analyzed two types of GO doped 3D chitosan-gelatin aerogels with GO sheets embedded in the bulk or deposited on the surface. Through combined structural characterization and adsorption tests on selected proxies of drinking water micropollutants, we compared both GO-embedded and GO-coated materials and established the best architecture for achieving enhanced removal efficiency toward contaminants in water. To evaluate the best configuration, we studied the adsorption capacity of both systems on two organic molecules (i.e., fluoroquinolonic antibiotics ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin) and a heavy metal (lead Pb 2+) of great environmental relevance and with already proved high affinity for GO. The Pb monolayer maximum adsorption capacity q max was 11.1 mg/g for embedded GO aerogels and 1.5 mg/g in coated GO-ones. Only minor differences were found for organic contaminants between coating and embedding approaches with an adsorption capacity of 5-8 mg/g and no adsorption was found for chitosan-gelatin control aerogels without GO. Finally, potential antimicrobial effects were found particularly for the GO-coated aerogels materials, thus corroborating the multifunctionality of the newly developed porous structures.

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“…From a scientific and regulatory standpoint, Flint's water met all existing federal standards by summer 2017, which by some definitions could mark an end to the public health crisis. But the problem of lost trust was an enormous issue (Canepari and Leduff 2016;Goodnough and Atkinson 2016;Adewunmi 2017;Fonger 2017a;Chavez 2018; The Detroit News 2018; Shapiro and Gringlas 2018), creating a crisis of confidence (Roy and Edwards 2018a) and an environment ripe for exploitation by rumors and fearmongering (Roy 2017). While the mistrust in government agencies was self-inflicted and deserved through at least early 2016, we argue herein that the credible work of relief agencies after that time were systematically undermined by those operating under a banner of citizen science.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen Science During the Flint, Michigan Federal Water Emergency: Ethical Dilemmas and Lessons Learned

Roy

Edwards

2019

Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

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A citizen science collaboration between Flint residents, the Virginia Tech "Flint Water Study" team, and others helped to uncover the Flint Lead-in-Drinking Water Crisis and a community-wide outbreak of Legionella. The resulting Federal Emergency declaration in January 2016 resulted in more than $600 million in relief funding, an acknowledged case of environmental injustice, and resignations/indictments of some public officials. But after responsible government entities apologized and attempted to make amends and help with the recovery, some "citizen scientists" began making public statements that were in direct conflict with public health messaging of scientific authorities. A general state of science anarchy resulted, which created further distrust and confusion. Some practices employed were consistent with a concept of "citizen engineering," which aims to "undermine engineering [and science] expertise" in the name of "democratizing" science. "Citizen Engineers" view concepts of scientific rigor and objectivity as justification for abuse of power by authorities and scientists, and they embrace biases and conflicts of interest that scientists aspire to guard against. While there are ethical guidelines for professional scientists on research misconduct, no such framework exists for policing instances of unethical behavior by citizen scientists. Possible abuses of citizen science documented in Flint explored in this case study include: 1) collection of non-representative data that created unjustified fear among residents about the safety of water used for bathing and showering, 2) perceived financial conflicts of interest, and 3) falsification of data to obtain relief resources, support lawsuits, gain media attention, or support erroneous scientific conclusions. We also report the journey of an aspiring citizen scientist who openly acknowledged mistakes, made the "right" decision in relation to handling an ethical dilemma, and who was then publicly attacked for doing so. This experience highlights challenges to the practice of citizen science, especially during high profile emergency interventions and disasters involving environmental injustice.

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Preventing another lead (Pb) in drinking water crisis: Lessons from the Washington D.C. and Flint MI contamination events

Cited by 68 publications

References 35 publications

The pervasive threat of lead (Pb) in drinking water: Unmasking and pursuing scientific factors that govern lead release

The pervasive threat of lead (Pb) in drinking water: Unmasking and pursuing scientific factors that govern lead release

Multifunctional graphene oxide/biopolymer composite aerogels for microcontaminants removal from drinking water

Citizen Science During the Flint, Michigan Federal Water Emergency: Ethical Dilemmas and Lessons Learned

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