“Since I was born and until 2016, we lived in an old house that had lead pipes,” says Dionna Brown, 26, from Flint, Michigan. Even after moving into a lead pipe-free residence, a blood test showed elevated lead levels well into 2018. Brown’s grandmother, who lived most of her life in Detroit and later Flint, suffered from low white blood cell count and chronic kidney disease, conditions associated with prolonged toxic exposure to lead. She passed away five years ago.
For over a decade, the city of Flint endured one of the worst water crises in modern U.S. history. Lead contamination — worsened by inadequate water testing and poor governmental response in the predominately Black community — spurred a public health catastrophe in 2014 that is not yet fully resolved.
While the crisis ignited a nationwide crusade to tackle lead, nearly 22 million people across all 50 states…
Read the full article originally published at earthjustice.org.