In the news recently, an enormous scandal regarding the lead toxicity levels in the drinking water of the city of Flint, Michigan. There were major reactions and criticisms coming from all over the United States. What was unknown to me, and I assume many other Americans, is that this is an issue that has plagued the country for years, although went largely unnoticed. It is also one that has been underplayed in many locations until the situation in Flint was brought to light. Aqua Pro-Tech Laboratories chief executive said in the article: “no one was testing. Now all of a sudden, they’re all going crazy.”. The fact that these issues were swept under the rug until a nationally covered news story revealed the case is morally upside down. The primary motivator to not do the testing and furthermore, not perform necessary corrections is the monetary cost involved. The prices to replace the lead pipes that are corroding are high (several million dollars for an average school district), but what is the value of prevention of stunting cognitive growth? The effects of the lead poisoning are the reason there are EPA regulations on how much lead, the drinking water can contain. In many schools mentioned in the article, there are cases of the lead concentrations reading 60 times the federal threshold. This is quite obviously alarming, but what is even more alarming is the potential amount of time that the lead level was present and left untreated in schools, where the primary purpose is to further a child’s cognitive development. Thankfully, now there are pushes being made to improve the situation, but there is still much progress to be made.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/us/schools-nationwide-still-grapple-with-lead-in-water.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0