PROFILE
FROM Michael Pell
Some LA neighborhoods face higher lead levels than Flint It’s been three years since the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan began. They’re still drinking bottled water there. In LA County, there are places with even higher rates of lead contamination, and in areas you wouldn’t expect, like wealthy San Marino.
Downtown LA lead levels exceed Flint, Michigan Some areas of California have worse lead levels than Flint, Michigan. In one Fresno neighborhood, there are three times as many kids with high lead levels in their blood than in Flint. Children in south L.A., the San Gabriel Valley, and downtown Los Angeles also have high lead levels.
Reuters report finds lead poisoning nationwide Four former city officials in Flint Michigan are facing criminal charges today over the city's water crisis, which exposed residents to dangerous levels of lead. That brings the total to 13 brought up on criminal charges in the scandal. Flint has stayed in the headlines but it isn't the only American community with a lead problem. According to a new investigation by Reuters, Flint doesn't even rank in the top ten. Reporters found nearly 3000 communities with recently recorded lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint… and more than a thousand of those places had rates four times as high. Michael Pell is a data journalist for Reuters and co-authored the story.
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