Milwaukee Health Department must improve its lead testing procedures
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In response to the recent announcement by the Milwaukee Health Commissioner and the Deputy Health Commissioner of Environment Health of the Milwaukee Health Department (MHD), Freshwater For Life Action Coalition (FLAC) â Milwaukeeâs leading community frontline advocacy group addressing the problem of lead in our cityâs water and the replacement of our lead laterals â calls on MHD to redesign its blood lead screening guidelines in order to include:
âą resident exposures to lead in tap water, and
âą the two most vulnerable to lead in water populations (i.e., fetuses and infants dependent on reconstituted formula).
MHD must also disclose the limitations of blood lead screening for capturing lead-in-water exposures due to the inherent variability of lead release (which can cause acute but short-lived spikes of lead in blood) and the half-life of lead in blood (which is estimated to be around 30 days).
All in all, it is time for MHD to stop misleading Milwaukee residents with simplistic and scientifically unsupported claims about lead-based paint being âthe most common and dangerous source of exposure for Milwaukee childrenâ while simultaneously promoting blood lead data-gathering programs that minimize the possibility of identifying any link between lead in water and lead in blood, even when water is the primary or even sole source of lead exposure.
The MHD announcement continues a decades-long practice of governmental half-truths, the likes of which caused the fall of the agencyâs lead program in 2018.
MHDâs new guidelines are rooted in the longstanding, but unsubstantiated, belief that lead exposures in children result primarily from toddlersâ âhand-to-mouthâ activity, all the while ignoring the drink-and-eat activity through lead-bearing plumbing materials that place us all at risk, from the womb to the grave.
The fact that MHD barely mentions lead in water as a contributor to Milwaukee residentsâ lead exposure sends a chilling and disturbing reminder to us all that MHD is continuing to place its own agenda over and above the interests of the public.
We request a response from MHD about our concerns and request for redesigned, and more science-based, blood lead screening guidelines.
The long-standing practice of covering up lead in water poisoning in Milwaukee must end.
Robert Miranda is a retired veteran and longtime Milwaukee activist. He serves as spokesman for the Freshwater For Life Action Coalition.
In case you missed it: OPINION: The fight against Milwaukeeâs lead crisis should be driven by community interests, not financial ones
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