NEWS

Doctor: Lead seen in more Flint kids since water switch

Number of Flint children with lead poisoning jumps after Flint water switch, says researcher.

Robin Erb
Detroit Free Press

Flint’s ongoing water woes are now associated with an immediate and irreversible danger — possible lead poisoning of some of the city’s children, according to a review of blood test results by a Hurley Children’s Hospital pediatrician.

Tony Pallaeeno Jr. holds a sample of water he boiled water from his house including a sand deposit and iron, while protesting the quality of water in front of Flint City Hall on Wednesday January 21, 2015 in downtown Flint.

“I was hoping not to find anything, but what we found … is concerning," said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha who also leads the pediatric residency program at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine.

“This is not something you mess around with,” she said. “Our population already has so many issues from poverty, from unemployment, from violence.”

State officials say their own review of blood test results have not shown the same increase that Hanna-Attisha found. Moreover, water tests have similarly shown lead within federally accepted levels, they say.

Hanna-Attisha examined results from blood samples of Genesee County children taken both before and after the city ended its water contract with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and began pulling water from the Flint River.

The number of Flint children with elevated blood-lead levels — 5 micrograms per deciliter or more — jumped from 2.1% in the 20 months prior to Sept. 15, 2013, to 4.0% between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 this year. In certain ZIP Codes, the change was even more troubling, she said — jumping from 2.5% of the children tested to 6.3%.

Blood is often drawn by pediatricians as part of routine lead-level testing, especially among children who are on Medicaid. That gave Hanna-Attisha 1,746 test results from Flint children to compare against 1,640 results from elsewhere in Genesee County. Children in Genesee County outside of Flint showed no significant increase in blood-lead levels.

Health officials have said no lead levels are safe. Lead can lead to serious developmental problems, reducing a child's IQ and causing serious behavioral and emotional problems. Though  levels can fall in individuals over time, the damage is permanent.

If Hanna-Attisha's analysis is correct, this upward trend in Flint interrupts years of progress in reducing dangerous blood-lead levels.

State data show that the  percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels have been falling for years. In fact in 2013, 3.6% of Flint children younger than 6 had elevated blood-lead levels, compared with the state-wide rate of 3.9%.

​Though Hanna-Attisha's review didn’t try to determine cause, “we can’t think of another reason” for the trend other than the change in Flint's water source.

The review is sure to ratchet up tension in Flint.

In 2014, city officials ended the city's contract with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, saying that water costs were too high. They opted instead to pull from the Karegnondi Water Authority, which is building a system to supply Genesee County with water pulled from Lake Huron. In the long run, this will mean lower water costs, officials have said.

But until the new system comes online in 2016, Flint is temporarily pulling water from the Flint River. Since it made the switch, residents have complained that the water smells, is discolored and makes them sick.

Soon after the switch, tests indicated the presence of coliform bacteria, which can suggest the presence of other disease-carrying pathogens. The water was then treated with disinfectants, and city officials maintain the water is safe.

The question is not that whether there is a higher level of lead in water from the Flint River — it's that river water may be more corrosive as it travels through lead pipes on residential properties and in homes, said Brad Wurfel, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. About 15,000 of the 40,000 Flint customers have lead pipes connecting to the city system, he said.

But he said testing has shown that lead levels in the Flint water system — both before and after the switch in 2014 — have been under the acceptable limit of 15 parts per billion during every three-year testing cycle since 1992. Additionally, two rounds of supplemented tests since the system switch put lead levels at 6 parts per billion and then at 11 parts per billion — a change that Wurfel said fits in line with previous fluctuations.

Congressman Dan Kildee, a Flint Democrat, called state and local testing "lackluster."

For one thing, Flint residents collect samples, and there are concerns that there are too few samples and that they represent only some parts of the city. And Wurfel confirmed that about 60 bottles of water samples were turned in by citizens in the last round of testing, even though 200 bottles were sent out.

In the best of circumstances — with enough sampling and previous clean tests of water — citizen sampling might be adequate. But, in Flint — where there's a major change in the system that some residents say have led to health problems, "it seems to be a much higher standard would apply," Kildee said.

In addition to water testing, Wurfel a said state public health officials have reexamined results of blood-lead level testing among Flint children. In short, that data doesn't show the same upward trend that Hanna-Attisha's found, he said.

Wurfel said environmental officials aren't taking the matter lightly, and they realize the water system is in "dire" need of an overhaul. They've requested a meeting with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency authorities to "review protocols" to make sure the state's testing is adequate.

"Lead is serious. Lead builds up. Lead effects children. It’s not something we take lightly," he said. "We’re confident with what we’ve done, but we know there are concerns."

Angela Minicuci, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, any increase in the past year in blood-lead levels among Flint children is attributed to predicable seasonal spikes.

In the year preceding the change in the water system, 95 Flint children younger than 16, or 2.4% of those tested, had elevated blood-lead levels, according to state data. The following year, 123 children, or 3.2%, of those tested had elevated blood-lead levels.

There is "cause for concern in Flint," but it cannot be attributed to the water, she said.

Contact Robin Erbrerb@freepress.com or 313-222-2708. Follow her on Twitter @Freephealth.

Free Press staff writer Kristi Tanner contributed to this report. 

Lead's toll on children:

Lead can affect many parts of the body, and is most harmful when there is repeated exposure, even to small amounts. Even low levels of lead exposure can harm a child's mental development, and the problems worsen as blood-lead levels get higher.
The younger the child, the more harmful the exposure; unborn children are the most vulnerable, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Among possible complications:

  • Behavior or attention problems
  • Failure at school
  • Hearing problems
  • Kidney damage
  • Reduced IQ
  • Slowed body growth

Very high levels of lead may cause vomiting, a staggering walk, muscle weakness, seizures, or coma.

For more information, visit www.cdc.gov. Search "lead poisoning."