Seems like continuous edge testing would be a critical first step.

End users seeing water content in real time would absolutely motivate fixes.

Via ChatGPT, some groups of Chicago children are average 6-8 µg/dL blood lead levels, guaranteeing they’ll face challenges related cognitive disability. 100+ years of this—and all they need is good water filters.

This should be a class action to get fixed. No way the government can fix this alone in a reasonable time frame without focusing on end-users first.

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erosenbe0 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Primary source of exposure in Chicago is from household dust contaminated by old paint. Water is secondary or tertiary issue, but can be bad. The article is a bit off the mark as they did not interview the Chicago DPH inspectors who respond to high serum reports.

Also, the average lead level of urban or suburban toddlers in the 1970s was 10-15 µg/dL, due mostly to vapors from leaded gasoline. Gen X had eye-popping lead exposures as kids.

So 6-8 µg/dL doesn't guarantee cognitive disability, but it is still bad.

[Edit: also want to add that quality monitoring doesn't necessarily fully solve the water situation either. For example, it is known that a chunk of leaded detritus or solder can drop into rice or pasta water from stream or aerator and raise serum precipitously, but won't be seen in a test as it is intermittent. The problem of lead is ubiquitous and not entirely tractable, but a lot of progress is possible over time.]

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skeezyboy 5 days ago | parent [-]

id like to remind you all that this is the richest country on the planet, and they live like its 19th century victorian britain

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hammock 5 days ago | parent [-]

19th century victorian britain was the richest country on the planet

	▲	skeezyboy 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		it also had open sewers, child prostitution, destitution, some of the worst living conditions in the first world. Just because the owners bump up the per-capita average doesnt mean shit, just like you see in USA. How many people cant even afford a brick building to live in?

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rafterydj 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Could you link a real source instead of ChatGPT, please?