(NaturalNews) After presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told Flint, Michigan, resident Lee-Anne Walters that it will take years before lead issues are improved, Walters says she was so taken aback that she became momentarily ill. “I hated Hillary Clinton’s answer,” Walters says. “It actually made me vomit in my mouth.”
According to Walters, Clinton not only evaded her direct question about removal of lead pipes throughout the United States by talking instead about lead paint and other lead sources, but set her sights too far into the future to make the changes that areas so desperately need now.
“We will commit to a priority to change the water systems and we will commit within five years to remove lead from everywhere,” Clinton said.
“To tell a Flint resident that we’ll handle this in five years is no different than what the city was telling us and what the state was telling us,” says Walters, whose child has elevated blood lead.
Flint residents can’t afford to wait several years for lead issues to be resolved
By now, the world is aware of the Flint lead poisoning crisis that has wreaked havoc on people’s health.
It all began in 2014, when state officials opted to switch from the Detroit water system and turn to the Flint River as a water source, providing area residents with lead-leaden water that ultimately destroyed their lives.
“Since Flint started providing us with water from the Flint River, my water has turned bluish-green from all the copper in the water, the levels of lead have quadrupled and we have been notified about high levels of toxic chemicals,” said Flint resident Melissa Mays. Mays, who is only 36-years-old, says she now has osteoarthritis and bone spurs.
And let’s not forget the fact that the area has experienced 87 cases of legionnaires’ disease outbreaks since 2014, 10 of which have led to death.
The true shame of it all has been the blatant disregard by the government. Rather than own up to the problem, they swept it under the carpet, often saying that conclusive evidence couldn’t be found to really trace the problem to Flint specifically. Residents were even told that the water was safe to drink.
Fault admitted by Flint officials way too late … The damage has been done
Specifically, Governor Rick Snyder is said to have known about the toxic water, yet the fact that the switch from the Detroit water system to the Flint river was a money-saver, made him and those who worked for him keep the matter hush-hush. Thankfully, the people of Flint engaged in a lawsuit against Governor Snyder and his administration, saying that they were knowingly provided with undrinkable water.
Perhaps so much visibility over this issue finally got to his administration; they’ve finally admitted that they didn’t take the steps they should have to make sure lead wouldn’t seep from the city’s old pipes into the drinking water.
Sadly, it’s too late to admit the fault.
After all, people there still suffer from health conditions that will never go away. They’ve even seen loved ones die. And lead poisoning among Flint children has soared from 2.4 percent to 4.9 percent as a result of this mess.
Mike Adams taking proactive stance to help citizens know about their water supply
The last thing people in Flint want to hear is some kind of bizarre five-year goal to change the water systems and “remove lead everywhere,” as Clinton mentioned. The matter needs to be addressed immediately, not just in Flint, but everywhere that the risk of lead in drinking water poses a concern.
One person who has taken a proactive approach to addressing this issue is Health Ranger Mike Adams, who is working with a former NASA contract scientist to conduct nationwide scientific analyses of heavy metals in U.S. city tap water. The general public is encouraged to send in their water samples in order to help highlight the potential magnitude of this problem.
“In the spirit of citizen science and the democratization of science, we are taking on this task because the EPA has failed the citizens of Flint, Michigan,” says Adams. “We don’t have time to wait for the EPA to someday decide to do its job. We need to protect our children right now.”
Water samples for analysis are being crowd-sourced from health professionals across America. Ultimately, Adams’ team plans to test the water of at least 100 large U.S. cities, the results of which will be available for the public to view on EPAwatch.org.
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