The EPA cleaned up lead in her neighborhood years ago; She got poisoned this summer
Dublin Core
Title
The EPA cleaned up lead in her neighborhood years ago; She got poisoned this summer
Description
Lead poisoning is still a very prevalent topic in society today. There are news stories about lead in water, food and chipping paint all over the country. According to a 2018 CNN study, lead exposure in the United States could be worse than previously thought and could responsible for causing ten times more deaths than numbers reported to begin with (Liber 2018). The most prominent lead problem the United States was Flint Michigan which brought back to light the conversation about environmental inequalities and public health.
The topic of lead is still a common conversation and concern for many people. The most worry comes from those within the Omaha Superfund Site created in the 1870’s. One report from local news report from KETV on, November 13th, 2019 says, “130,00 people in Omaha right now they are living inside an EPA superfund site contaminated with lead” (KETV 0:02-0:10). This video shows the problem of high lead levels and the effect of the Superfund Site still creating problems in people’s lives.
This report brings a city-wide disaster to a human scale. It tells the story of a family living in their house on the outer side of the Superfund Site. Maggie and Charles Fisher explain that they were working in their backyard on garden and yard work and they did this for multiple days for a few hours. They then began complaining of not feeling good, have aches and pains. Maggie Fisher decided to go into the hospital and have a blood test and was told she had lead poisoning. This is the problem, the amount of lead in the family’s yard was under that threshold, but still caused poisoning. The surrounding properties to this house had such high levels, but their house did not so they believed they were not in any kind of danger. The EPA has now come to say that there is an issue, “The cleanup level selected for residential yards may not protect children to current CDC-acceptable blood-lead concentrations” (EPA report page 9, 2019). There is still concern that low levels in the soil can still cause lead poisoning.
The interview with Steve Ziviny in the video reinforces the claim that there is nothing that he can do to change lead testing without some kind of order from federal court. There is hope that the lead level testing threshold can be lowered from 400 parts per million, but that would require more money for testing and remediation of the soil and yards. There have been many positive steps towards prevention from all different kinds of organizations such as Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance and blood testing in schools. Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance works to educate families on creating healthier homes for their families and send people into the communities to help ensure this. Blood testing in schools has become a fairly new action but is helping children and their families diagnose and prevent lead poisoning by blood testing for elevated lead levels.
Although there have been significant advances in lead research and prevention, there are still some areas in Omaha that are seeing effects. The Superfund Site covers from the river to west at 50th street. This large area is home to many people that may or may not have the resources to get their homes tested for lead and potentially lead removal. The removal of lead and prevention of lead needs to keep moving forward to make a better life for many people in the Omaha community.
Lieber, M. (2018, March 13). US deaths from lead exposure 10 times higher than thought, study suggests. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/health/lead-exposure-cardiovascular-disease-study/index.html.
Earl, D. (2019, November 13). The EPA cleaned up lead in her neighborhood years ago; She got poisoned this summer. Retrieved from https://www.ketv.com/article/the-epa-cleaned-up-lead-in-her-neighborhood-years-ago-she-got-poisoned-this-summer/29763386.
The topic of lead is still a common conversation and concern for many people. The most worry comes from those within the Omaha Superfund Site created in the 1870’s. One report from local news report from KETV on, November 13th, 2019 says, “130,00 people in Omaha right now they are living inside an EPA superfund site contaminated with lead” (KETV 0:02-0:10). This video shows the problem of high lead levels and the effect of the Superfund Site still creating problems in people’s lives.
This report brings a city-wide disaster to a human scale. It tells the story of a family living in their house on the outer side of the Superfund Site. Maggie and Charles Fisher explain that they were working in their backyard on garden and yard work and they did this for multiple days for a few hours. They then began complaining of not feeling good, have aches and pains. Maggie Fisher decided to go into the hospital and have a blood test and was told she had lead poisoning. This is the problem, the amount of lead in the family’s yard was under that threshold, but still caused poisoning. The surrounding properties to this house had such high levels, but their house did not so they believed they were not in any kind of danger. The EPA has now come to say that there is an issue, “The cleanup level selected for residential yards may not protect children to current CDC-acceptable blood-lead concentrations” (EPA report page 9, 2019). There is still concern that low levels in the soil can still cause lead poisoning.
The interview with Steve Ziviny in the video reinforces the claim that there is nothing that he can do to change lead testing without some kind of order from federal court. There is hope that the lead level testing threshold can be lowered from 400 parts per million, but that would require more money for testing and remediation of the soil and yards. There have been many positive steps towards prevention from all different kinds of organizations such as Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance and blood testing in schools. Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance works to educate families on creating healthier homes for their families and send people into the communities to help ensure this. Blood testing in schools has become a fairly new action but is helping children and their families diagnose and prevent lead poisoning by blood testing for elevated lead levels.
Although there have been significant advances in lead research and prevention, there are still some areas in Omaha that are seeing effects. The Superfund Site covers from the river to west at 50th street. This large area is home to many people that may or may not have the resources to get their homes tested for lead and potentially lead removal. The removal of lead and prevention of lead needs to keep moving forward to make a better life for many people in the Omaha community.
Lieber, M. (2018, March 13). US deaths from lead exposure 10 times higher than thought, study suggests. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/health/lead-exposure-cardiovascular-disease-study/index.html.
Earl, D. (2019, November 13). The EPA cleaned up lead in her neighborhood years ago; She got poisoned this summer. Retrieved from https://www.ketv.com/article/the-epa-cleaned-up-lead-in-her-neighborhood-years-ago-she-got-poisoned-this-summer/29763386.
Creator
KETV
Publisher
KETV
Date
Nov 13, 2019
Contributor
Meghan Thornton
David McGuire
David McGuire
Language
English
Hyperlink Item Type Metadata
URL
https://www.ketv.com/article/the-epa-cleaned-up-lead-in-her-neighborhood-years-ago-she-got-poisoned-this-summer/29763386
Collection
Citation
KETV, “The EPA cleaned up lead in her neighborhood years ago; She got poisoned this summer,” History of Environmental Inequalities, accessed April 30, 2024, https://steppingintothemap.com/inequalities/items/show/42.
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