A home near West Becher Street and South 13th Street on Milwaukee’s south side. There were more than 200 children that tested positive for lead poisoning in this area in 2016.
Paint or water? That’s the question many citizens are asking themselves when it comes to finding out what the main source of lead poisoning is for the City of Milwaukee.
Data from October shows that 3,143 Milwaukee children tested positive for lead poisoning so far this year—the highest number since 2013. This comes as the city and its Health Department announced last Friday that it was making advances regarding its lead abatement program. The 2019 city budget also includes $20 million to reduce lead risks.
So why have more children tested positive for lead this year? Is it due to lead in paint that is chipping in old homes, or is it due to lead in the water laterals that is getting into drinking water across the city? These are questions that city leaders and community groups disagree with each other on.
What is Lead Poisoning?
In the simplest terms, lead is a naturally occurring element and a soft, blue-gray metal. Before lead began being banned in the 1970s, it was used in many products including paint, gasoline, batteries, cosmetics and ceramics. However, lead was also used beneath our feet as well, as the city says that nearly 45% of the water services in Milwaukee are made of lead.
If lead gets in a human body, it can have long-term effects. Even at low levels, lead has been shown to harm the developing brains and bodies of young children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This includes increased behavior problems, impaired school performance, increased juvenile delinquency, and increased health problems such as speech and language delays, hearing problems, kidney damage, seizures and in rare cases death. Adults can also be exposed to lead, as pregnant and breastfeeding women are a particular concern because of the risk of exposure to a developing baby, according to the CDC.In the 1960’s, blood lead levels above 60 micrograms per deciliter were considered to be lead poisoning. But in 2012, the CDC lowered the the level at which public health actions are recommended to five micrograms per deciliter. Although elevated blood level numbers in Milwaukee have decreased for children under the age of 6 from around 30% in the 1990s, to less than 5% today, this issue is still concerning to the city and its leaders.
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“Both numbers are unacceptable,” said Michael Stevenson, a public health planner for the City of Milwaukee Health Department. “No child should be lead poisoned.”
These numbers are also concerning to Robert Miranda of the Freshwater For Life Action Coalition (FLAC). Miranda has been pushing for action regarding this issue at the city level, calling for an investigation into the Health Department. Former health commissioner Bevan Baker was removed from the Health Department after problems within the department’s lead abatement program surfaced last January.
“There’s a lot of questions here and we feel that there's an onion that needs to be peeled,” said Miranda. “We are hoping that the onion gets peeled soon and fast, because we feel that any further delay continues to harm our families due to the continued lack of transparency by this administration.”
Members of FLAC and the Get the Lead Out Coalition say lead in the water laterals is the main source of lead poisoning. However, the City of Milwaukee says the main source of lead poisoning is due to deteriorating lead-based paint.
Lead in the Water Laterals
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This map shows the prevalence of lead poisoning on the north side of Milwaukee. (Source: Milwaukee Health Department, City of Milwaukee)
Members of FLAC and the Get the Lead Out Coalition have been looking at city, state and federal maps of Milwaukee that go as far back as 1800 to research where lead laterals exist in Milwaukee. They are using geographic information systems (GIS) to say that they believe that the main source of lead poisoning is the lead in the water laterals, and the city’s work to remove water mains that disrupt the lead that exists in the laterals.
City data show that there were 76,244 lead service lines in Milwaukee in February 2018. A lead service line does not include the water main, but rather the service line from the water main to a property owner’s home.
A 2013 Environmental Science and Technology study that focused on water main replacements in Chicago found that “the highest lead results most often were associated with sites having known disturbances to the lead service lines.” A 2016 American Water Works Association study of the Milwaukee Water Works (MWW) also found that replacement techniques of water mains in the city led to a spike in the amount of lead within a service line. This study pushed city leaders to halt water main replacements in 2016, as even former health commissioner Bevan Baker urged city leaders to stop this practice.
However, in 2018, the MWW announced they were replacing 18 miles of water mains through more than 90 separate projects. FLAC and the Get the Lead Out Coalition say that these practices are harmful to the city and are pushing for the city to replace all the lead service lines instead. “The only effective long-term solution is the full removal of lead pipes,” said Miranda.
Although the city says this could cost up to $2 billion, Miranda said they could work over a period of 30 to 40 years to remove the laterals at a lower cost. The city has replaced 764 lead service lines so far in 2018.
The group also believes that maps that show infant mortality and where lead poisoning exists in Milwaukee correlate with each other, citing an Environmental Science and Technology study that says that exposure to lead has been associated with “spontaneous abortion, stillbirth and high rates of infant mortality.” They say that a 2012-2016 map from the city showing infant deaths directly correlates with the 2014 lead poisoning density map.
Members of the Get the Lead Out Coalition say they have been preparing data and maps proving these points. The Milwaukee Water Works was contacted for this story but did not respond.
Lead in the Paint
City leaders, including a public health planner and UWM professor, were invited to a public forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County on Saturday.
Michael Stevenson of the Milwaukee Health Department presented information about lead poisoning across the city at a public forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County last Saturday.
“Just because you live in an old home doesn't mean your child will be poisoned, and just because you have a lead service line doesn't mean your child will be poisoned,” he said.
Although he said this, he also said that the City of Milwaukee has found that lead poisoning is primarily driven by deteriorating lead-based paint.
The city pointed out that paint containing lead was not banned in the United States until 1978. They believe that young children are vulnerable to deteriorating lead-based paint because they are more likely to ingest contaminated dust or objects due to their “hand-to-mouth behaviors.”
Numbers from February 2018 show that there are 121,240 residential properties in the city that were built before 1978. Of this number, the city has made 18,147 properties “lead-paint-safe” since 1997.
The city is using a 2017 Environmental Protection Agency report that showed that children living in older homes with lead-based paint hazards “by far have the most exposure to lead.” The study said that for infants, soil and dust contribute to 50% of the lead in blood, while 40% was from water and 10% from food.Helen Meier, an assistant professor at UW-Milwaukee who has been researching lead exposure, was also present at the public forum. She agrees that lead-based paint is the main source of lead poisoning.
“This disparity is attributed to limited housing choices,” said Meier. “If you have a low income, you might not have the ability to rent housing that is properly abated or controlled for lead levels. We need to be thinking about this as a health inequity.”
Stevenson also said that since 2004, the city’s primary intervention regarding lead poisoning was focused on lead-based paint in the highest risk areas. He said that since 2004, lead poisoning prevalence has decreased by approximately 23%.
You can learn more about free water filters the city offers here.
