Drinking water crisis in Flint (Michigan, USA) – problems with american lead service lines since 150 years

Abstract

In 2015 it got obvious that in the post-industrial city of Flint (Michigan) drinking water had become corrosive to lead pipes and many people have taken up significant amounts of toxic lead. The year before, the water supply had been switched from one of the Great Lakes to a local river water source. The corrosive water of the River Flint caused a massive lead release from the lead service lines, frequently used in the United States of America. The case attracted attention in ever-widening circles up to a national level. About ten years ago there was another important case where lead service lines in the capital of Washington D.C. also induced a significant release of the toxic metal into drinking water. These two cases are lined up in similar incidents in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century in America. In the early cases the poor quality of drinking water caused a very high corrosivity of the water resulting in many chronic poisoning cases with clinically visible symptoms.