Lead Contamination: Impacts on Health, Environment, and Communities - Essay Sample

Introduction

Lead is a metal that exists naturally in the earth’s crust whose widespread use has led to contamination of the environment, health problems, and significant human exposure that is felt across the globe (EPA, 2020). Lead occurs from other activities such as smelting, mining, recycling activities, and manufacturing processes among others. It is also produced from leaded gasoline, leaded paint, and leaded aviation fuel among others. Its extraction from the core happens by reduction with carbon and separation of the lead ore from the zinc ores. Lead is used in the manufacture of various products such as lead-acid batteries for motor vehicles, stained glass, paints, ceramic glazes, ammunition, toys, jewelry, and traditional medicines among others.

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By the 1920s, the lead had already formed a vital part of the middle class in the American home. It was used in the manufacture of housing apparatuses such as iceboxes, telephones, irons, vacuums, and washing machines among others. It was also used in the manufacture of gasoline, paint, building blocks, and pipes for water transport. The lead pipes were highly used because of their ease of bending, making them easily conform to the contours of any existing structures or buildings (Bliss, 2016). However, it was not until the late 1800s that the lead pipes for transporting water were identified as a source of lead poisoning.

Long-and Short-Term Health Effects

The health effects experienced by humans who are exposed to lead vary depending on their period of exposure. Short-term overexposure occurs when a person is exposed to high levels of lead within a short period. According to the CDC (2018), a person may experience constipation, abdominal pain, tiredness, irritability, headache, memory loss, weakness, and pain or tingling of the feet or hands. Prolonged exposure to lead over time may however result in abdominal pain, depression, constipation, forgetfulness, irritability, nausea or sickness, and distractedness among others (WHO, 2019). People with prolonged exposure are also at a high risk of reduced fertility, diseases like kidney and heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Effect of Lead Contamination on the Environment

The environment is also affected by lead and its contents. Lead corrodes pipelines in systems transporting water and leaded paints to end up in water and soils. The components of lead accumulate in the soil and water organisms. The organisms in the end experience the health effects associated with lead poisoning (Tiwari et al., 2013). The functions in the soil are disturbed by the interventions of lead, especially close to farmlands and highways where the concentrations may hit alarming levels. Lead is a dangerous chemical and in the long run, may accumulate in the entire food chain and individual organisms. In the long term, the small accumulations of lead present in water bodies affect the health of water organisms and the biological systems of phytoplankton (Tiwari et al., 2013). With the phytoplankton as a vital oxygen source for sea animals and the seas, it raises concerns about the likelihood of lead pollution to influence the global balance.

Lead Regulation in Air, Water, and Soil

Lead is regulated in the air by using the Clean Air Act using the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), and the EPA that restrict the amount of lead that can be in the ambient air (EPA, 2020). In water, the lead is regulated by the EPA using the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) (EPA, 2020). This means that the necessary measures are taken to ensure that the drinking water becomes less corrosive with the materials it contacts with on its way to consumer taps. In the soil, the EPA ensures that the lead concentrations are less than 50 parts per million (ppm) with the soil in play areas not exceeding 400 ppm by weight and 1200 ppm for non-play areas (EPA, 2020). Areas that record the highest values in lead contamination are those near lead smelters such as Nyster’s Port Pirie smelter in Australia. Areas with the highest lead concentration of pollution in water include those areas with housing structures beyond 1986 or those with poor household plumbing systems or connections that contain lead. The problem of lead contamination in the soil is most prevalent in areas where mining and metallurgy are conducted to a greater extent, i.e., in China.

Sources of Lead Problem in Air and Soil

An example of a source of lead problems in residential soil is lead paint. The presence of the paint on the ground provides room for leaching, chalking, weathering, flaking, sandblasting, and scraping of the leaded paint. These processes deposit lead at the base of the houses, establishing a room for lead contamination. To control the problem, the residential soil is tested for lead before any other necessary steps are performed. If the lead amount is wanting, the next steps to reduce exposure to soil lead and prevent the soil from further contamination are implemented, i.e., mitigating the use of lead-based paint.

The major causes of lead contamination in the air include the manufacture of lead-acid batteries used in automobiles. The battery contains positive and negative terminals that are made of lead. These terminals provide the connection to external devices and release the lead into the atmosphere when in use. The average amount of lead produced by the automotive batteries ranges from 2 to 13 kg respective on the size of the vehicle. A solution to this problem is the development of electric vehicles to put an end to the use of lead-based acid batteries.

Case Study (Flint, Mi)

Flint is the largest city in Michigan, United States, It is located northwest of Detroit along the Flint River. The region is marked by 53.70% black or African American, 39.68% White, and 4.99% of two or more races.

Flint Lead-Water Crisis

Flint Michigan lead poisoning (Highlinemiddle, 2017)

For over a century, the Flint River flew past the heart of the town and served as an unofficial site for the disposal of waste products from the various local industries along its shores. These included meatpacking plants, car factories, carriages, and lumber and paper mills. The industries evolve, including the development of automobile companies (General Motors) with the city’s economy expanding. However, the businesses’ success was put to a halt during the 1980s with an increase in auto imports and oil prices (Denchak, 2018). This led to a decrease in Flint’s population causing the city to be cash-strapped. The act of piping water for residents from Detroit was implemented as a cheaper alternative. This involved a temporal pumping of water from the Flint River until an efficient water pipeline was established from Lake Huron. The water from the river was highly corrosive and Flint officials failed to treat it. Lead, therefore, leached out from the aging pipes to thousands of homes (Denchak, 2018).

How Populations are Affected by Lead Poisoning

Exposure to lead was associated with various serious health impacts including madness and even death (Denchak, 2018). The most impacted populations were infants and young children. Exposure to lead impairs the brain development of infants, fetuses, and even young children. This damage can occur for a lifetime and impair hearing, behavioral problems, and cardiovascular problems (Denchak, 2018). The adults are also affected as the high exposure the lead is linked to heart and kidney diseases, reduced fertility, and high blood pressure.

Short-term Measures to Lead Poisoning

The short-term measures taken to mitigate the problem include the use of emergency responses to prevent adverse effects. This includes the use of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a Unified Coordination Group to respond to the recovery efforts. This organization worked together with the CDC and ATSDR to develop a recovery and response plan and activate a CDC emergency operations center. The state of Michigan, together with the CDC ensured that there are proper coordination and efficient health messaging processes; proper accessibility of lead exposure in the community; linking and identifying the community with appropriate social, educational, and environmental follow-up activities, and providing guidance on the protocols for blood lead screening (Ruckart et al., 2019).

Long-term Measures to Lead Poisoning

The long-term recovery measures for lead poisoning (such as Flint) involve the establishment of a Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016 to implement actions that support the Flint recovery process. This involves establishing new federal advisory committees, supporting the establishment of a voluntary lead exposure registry for Flint, and enhancing CLPPP activities (Ruckart et al., 2019). A registry planning by the Michigan HHS also helps to improve service delivery to lead-exposed people; by monitoring child development, health, and service utilization after exposure.

This situation is not unique to Flint. According to Schneyer & Pell (2016), Flint fails to rank among the most dangerous lead hotspots in America. Others include but are not limited to Tennessee, New York City, North Carolina, Vermont, Georgia, and Kansas (Schneyer & Pell, 2017). New Jersey is also another hotspot for lead poisoning. According to the State of New Jersey (2018), more than 200,000 children in New Jersey tested for lead exposure. Moreover, an estimated 4,800 New Jersey children had elevated levels of lead in their blood. The primary source of lead exposure to children in the region is lead-based paints that were used on houses that were built before 1978.

Legislation and Remediation

Some of the solutions to the problem of lead contamination include the following:

Establishing targeted risk communication strategies, improved surveillance, enhancing environmental health infrastructure, and providing primary prevention that identifies and responds to invisible, disparate, and preventable environmental threats.

Increasing attention to children who are exposed to lead in Flint and providing them with a Flint Medicaid Waiver. The waiver will cover children younger than 21 years and expectant women impacted by the Flint water system. The waiver also increases access to nutritional support, behavioral health specialists, and doctors.

Establishing a comprehensive framework that eliminates lead while incorporating both scientific and community involvement with broad perspectives that drive the goal. This will incorporate effective infrastructural advancements that prevent exposure to lead and sustain this momentum.

Lead contamination is pervasive in the community. This calls for the need for the Environmental Protection Agency to tend to the superfund cleanups and ensure that the lead-contaminated sites are controlled. Among the vital spots that call for cleaning and testing are daycare yards, playgrounds, and other places where children gather.

Feature Clip: Lead in the Water in Flint Michigan

The clip details the true story of the fight against lead in Flint Michigan, how it is released to the environment, and its toxic aspects. This is not just the case in Flint but all the other states that grapple with the problem of lead intoxication.

References

AJ+(2016, January 08). Lead in the water in Flint, Michigan. [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnDQFivtCd0

Bliss, L. (2016, February 10). The long, ugly history of the politics of lead poisoning. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-09/the-politics-of-lead-poisoning-a-long-ugly-history

CDC (2018, June 18). Lead. Cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/lead/health.html#:~:text=Health%20effects%20from%20short%2Dterm%20overexposure%20to%20lead&t...