Another BushCo cover-up: High lead levels in D.C.

By GottaLaff

BushCo does it again. Concerns about putting people's lives and health at risk? Meh. To BushCo, it was simply one more opportunity to play Chicken with the justice system, regulatory measures, and America's well-being:

An investigation by Rebecca Renner of Salon has revealed that the Center for Disease Control(CDC) had withheld evidence of dangerously high levels [of lead]. An influential CDC report released in 2004 (and since cited by officials in Seattle to calm nervous parents) downplayed the role that chloramination played in the D.C. lead crisis, saying that it "might have contributed a small increase in blood lead levels." However, according to Renner, "the results of thousands of blood tests that measured lead contamination in children were missing from the report, potentially skewing the findings and undermining public health. Further, the CDC discovered in 2007 that many young children living in D.C. homes with lead pipes were poisoned by drinking water and suffered ill effects. Parents wondered whether the water could have caused speech and balance problems, difficulty with learning, and hyperactivity. Yet the health agency did not publicize the new findings or alert public health authorities in D.C. or other federal agencies that regulate lead, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or Housing and Urban Development." [...]

The parents of young twins, who believe lead exposure caused developmental problems with their children, filed a $200m lawsuit in February.

Let's say it one more time, in unison: Oversight.

Seems like old times, though, doesn't it? M-m-m, nothing like reminiscing to make you really.... sick.

The full Salon article can be found here.