Poisoned Water: Michigan Crisis

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/flint-michigan-water.html

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0624-water-lead.html

Corrosion in the lead and iron pipes that distribute water to city residents plagued Flint, Michigan since summer of 2014. The city decided to begin using the Flint River as its water source however it was not adequately monitored that water has the naturally ability to corrode iron pipes. So when high lead levels, rust-colored tap water, and the growth of pathogenic microbes the CDC stepped in.The Flint River water had a relatively low pH that decreased over time. Reports from the Flint treatment plant, the city’s water had a pH of about 8 in December 2014, but then it slowly dropped to 7.3 by August 2015. Environmental engineers say that if water pH drifts too low in the absence of orthophosphate, the water can start to leach high levels of lead from pipes.

This is still an ongoing crisis in Flint, it is dire that people across the country are aware of the dangerous that could come from your very own faucet. It's important to be updated on any decisions made based on the needs of a town because many people were unaware of the root of the problem.

Nailed It!

New DNA analysis of a fingernail supports the idea that lead poisoning was not the culprit of an explorer's death.

A 170-year-old mystery has been solved with a new, more detailed genetic map of a dead man's fingernail, John Hartnell. Lead poisoning was the leading cause of death (with good reason, it wasn't uncommon at the time; tainted water and food caused a lot of deaths) but now researchers have found evidence to prove that this was not the case.

Toxicologist Jennie Christensen and her colleagues measured levels of zinc and copper in different places of a fingernail and toenail of explorer Hartnell. They found that Hartnell was actually deficient for both metals (especially zinc) and could track the levels over his expeditions. The lack of zinc and copper was due to a lack of protein from meat and fish that is crucial to a person's diet. Hartnell's extreme zinc deficiency may have lead him to be susceptible to illness due to a weak immune response. Hartnell and his shipmates were vulnerable to pneumonia and tuberculosis and that is how they may have died.