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The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster
In The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster , Werner Troesken looks at a long-running environmental and public health 150 years of lead pipes in local water systems and the associated sickness, premature death, political inaction, and social denial. The harmful effects of lead water pipes became apparent almost as soon as cities the world over began to install them. Doctors and scientists noted cases of acute illness and death attributable to lead in public water beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, and an editorial in the New York Herald called for the city to study the matter after a bizarre illness made headlines in 1868. But officials took no action for many years. New York City, for example, did not take any steps to reduce lead levels in water until 1992, long after the most serious damage had been done. By then, in any case, much of the old lead pipe had been replaced with safer materials.
Troesken examines the health effects of lead exposure, analyzing cases from New York City, Boston, and Glasgow and many smaller towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and England. He draws on period accounts, government reports, court decisions, and economic and demographic analysis to document the widespread nature of the problem, the recognized health effects—particularly for pregnant women and young children—and official intransigence. He presents an accessible overview of the old and new science of lead exposure—explaining, for example, why areas with soft water suffered more harmful effects than areas with hard water. And he gives us compelling and vivid accounts of the people and politics involved. The effects of lead in water continue to be felt; many older houses still have lead service pipes. The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster is essential reading for understanding this past and ongoing public health problem.
Troesken examines the health effects of lead exposure, analyzing cases from New York City, Boston, and Glasgow and many smaller towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and England. He draws on period accounts, government reports, court decisions, and economic and demographic analysis to document the widespread nature of the problem, the recognized health effects—particularly for pregnant women and young children—and official intransigence. He presents an accessible overview of the old and new science of lead exposure—explaining, for example, why areas with soft water suffered more harmful effects than areas with hard water. And he gives us compelling and vivid accounts of the people and politics involved. The effects of lead in water continue to be felt; many older houses still have lead service pipes. The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster is essential reading for understanding this past and ongoing public health problem.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
318 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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January 18, 2016
A splendid jeremiad on the resistance of human beings to new ideas, and how long it takes for data to displace entrenched belief. Law One: A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test. from "The Laws of Medicine - Field Notes from an Uncertain Science" by Siddhartha Mukherjee is on display here.
It is also a searing indictment (see p. 200) of progressives and what they will do to achieve power or control.
This one has been in the stack for awhile. I brought it back to the top of the pile after hearing and reading stories such as: Flint Wants Safe Water, and Someone to Answer for Its Crisis By MITCH SMITHJAN. 9, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/us/...
The fourth book I have finished this year.
p. 7. Kingsbury's article failed to convince the broader medical community in New York City.
p. 15 - 16. The central arguments of this history are threefold. First, in certain regions, lead water pipes had serious public health consequences, particularly for very young children, the unborn, and childbearing women. . . . . Second, the adverse health effects of lead water pipes varied. . . . . Third, the decision by public authorities to install lead pipes, and to continue to use them despite serious public health consequences, resulted from a complex interplay of social forces and scientific conventions.
Progressives were serious contributors to this disaster: p. 184. Observers like Crawford and Clarke dismissed the claim that water from Loch Katrine could have become impregnated with lead as a fiction born of greed and whole cloth.
Those who identified lead as an issue in this (Loch Katrine, p. 185) case were not trying to stop the project, but rather suggesting that available methods to ameliorate the leaching of lead into the water be taken advantage of. Despite his being entirely right on the science: p. 188. In the court of public opinion, Penny's arguments were roundly defeated. His simple experiments did not compare with the elaborate model of the Loch Katrine aqueduct constructed by the rival scientists.
p. 195. Glasgow began dosing Lake Katrine water with lime in 1979.
Also from - Law One: A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test. From "The Laws of Medicine - Field Notes from an Uncertain Science" by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
p. 23. The central finding is that in the era before leaded gasoline and the widespread use of lead paints, water was likely the primary source of lead exposure for individuals living in regions with corrosive water supplies and lead pipes.
p. 33. . . . there is growing evidence that lead exposure is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. . . . . even for individuals who were exposed to lead as children but not as adults.
p. 42. Put simply, lead exposure can cause impulse control problems, and at the same time, diminish a person's ability to respond to various social and environmental stimuli. . . . lead levels are four times higher among juvenile offenders than among non-delinquent high school students.
p. 59. Water supplies that were soft tended to be more corrosive and absorb more lead from the interior of service pipes than water supplies that were hard.
p. 63. . . . . while professionals in the ancient world condemned of banned the use of lead pipes. "When we realize that half a century before the Christian ear Vitruvius condemned lead service pipes and 130 years after that time Galen did the same thing," . . . .
p. 68. Eugenicists argued that immigration and intermarriage allowed undesirable groups to infiltrate society and disrupt the transmission of "positive" human characteristics.
p. 96. But the most significant source of latency was that doctors around 1900 chose to ignore or dismiss research showing that prior lead exposure greatly increased a woman's risk of developing eclampsia.
p. 102. And for physicians who believed that water-related lead poisoning was only a remote possibility, it is highly unlikely that they would have ever observed such cases in their own practices - not because such cases had never passed through their office doors, but because when they did, the doctors looked in another direction.
Law One: A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test. From "The Laws of Medicine - Field Notes from an Uncertain Science" by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
p. 105. Even today, with the aid of late-twentieth-century technology and medical training, lead poisoning can be a difficult and elusive diagnosis.
p. 128. Imagine then the reluctance if those physicians were not only unaware of the range of symptoms, but hostile to the diagnosis because they knew that patient lived in a hard-water region and were sure that hard water did not dissolve lead.
p. 140. Paradoxically, cities with the most corrosive water supplies used lead pipes more frequently than cities with non-corrosive supplies because lead pipes better withstood corrosion.
p. 147. . . . those who were most severely affected were those who were poor and could not afford to purchase charcoal filters for their taps.
p. 160. Five years after the Lowell Daily Sun proclaimed that lead water pipes were safe, Lowell experienced one of the worst outbreaks of water-related lead poisoning recorded in modern history. . . . Furthermore, most cases improved once the individuals stopped drinking the city's tap water.
This was (p. 158) in the early 1890s. Twenty years later (p. 161) the superintendent of the Lowell water system was still in denial.
As late as the 1940s (p. 166) the Chicago municipal code required that only lead piping be used to connect homes to the city system. "Experts at the time were still unconcerned.
p. 176 - 177. In his landmark book, Plagues and Peoples, William McNeill suggested the epidemic diseases like cholera, and the fear the at surround them, had revolutionary implications for the structure of the state. Few historical episodes better illustrate this idea than the rise of municipal socialism in Glasgow.
p. 198. Recent statistical studies provide ample evidence that private water companies often provide more disease prevention that do public companies.
p. 205. There recent environmental developments suggest that water lead should continue to be a public health concern of at least moderate importance and interest.
It is also a searing indictment (see p. 200) of progressives and what they will do to achieve power or control.
This one has been in the stack for awhile. I brought it back to the top of the pile after hearing and reading stories such as: Flint Wants Safe Water, and Someone to Answer for Its Crisis By MITCH SMITHJAN. 9, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/us/...
The fourth book I have finished this year.
p. 7. Kingsbury's article failed to convince the broader medical community in New York City.
p. 15 - 16. The central arguments of this history are threefold. First, in certain regions, lead water pipes had serious public health consequences, particularly for very young children, the unborn, and childbearing women. . . . . Second, the adverse health effects of lead water pipes varied. . . . . Third, the decision by public authorities to install lead pipes, and to continue to use them despite serious public health consequences, resulted from a complex interplay of social forces and scientific conventions.
Progressives were serious contributors to this disaster: p. 184. Observers like Crawford and Clarke dismissed the claim that water from Loch Katrine could have become impregnated with lead as a fiction born of greed and whole cloth.
Those who identified lead as an issue in this (Loch Katrine, p. 185) case were not trying to stop the project, but rather suggesting that available methods to ameliorate the leaching of lead into the water be taken advantage of. Despite his being entirely right on the science: p. 188. In the court of public opinion, Penny's arguments were roundly defeated. His simple experiments did not compare with the elaborate model of the Loch Katrine aqueduct constructed by the rival scientists.
p. 195. Glasgow began dosing Lake Katrine water with lime in 1979.
Also from - Law One: A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test. From "The Laws of Medicine - Field Notes from an Uncertain Science" by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
p. 23. The central finding is that in the era before leaded gasoline and the widespread use of lead paints, water was likely the primary source of lead exposure for individuals living in regions with corrosive water supplies and lead pipes.
p. 33. . . . there is growing evidence that lead exposure is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. . . . . even for individuals who were exposed to lead as children but not as adults.
p. 42. Put simply, lead exposure can cause impulse control problems, and at the same time, diminish a person's ability to respond to various social and environmental stimuli. . . . lead levels are four times higher among juvenile offenders than among non-delinquent high school students.
p. 59. Water supplies that were soft tended to be more corrosive and absorb more lead from the interior of service pipes than water supplies that were hard.
p. 63. . . . . while professionals in the ancient world condemned of banned the use of lead pipes. "When we realize that half a century before the Christian ear Vitruvius condemned lead service pipes and 130 years after that time Galen did the same thing," . . . .
p. 68. Eugenicists argued that immigration and intermarriage allowed undesirable groups to infiltrate society and disrupt the transmission of "positive" human characteristics.
p. 96. But the most significant source of latency was that doctors around 1900 chose to ignore or dismiss research showing that prior lead exposure greatly increased a woman's risk of developing eclampsia.
p. 102. And for physicians who believed that water-related lead poisoning was only a remote possibility, it is highly unlikely that they would have ever observed such cases in their own practices - not because such cases had never passed through their office doors, but because when they did, the doctors looked in another direction.
Law One: A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test. From "The Laws of Medicine - Field Notes from an Uncertain Science" by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
p. 105. Even today, with the aid of late-twentieth-century technology and medical training, lead poisoning can be a difficult and elusive diagnosis.
p. 128. Imagine then the reluctance if those physicians were not only unaware of the range of symptoms, but hostile to the diagnosis because they knew that patient lived in a hard-water region and were sure that hard water did not dissolve lead.
p. 140. Paradoxically, cities with the most corrosive water supplies used lead pipes more frequently than cities with non-corrosive supplies because lead pipes better withstood corrosion.
p. 147. . . . those who were most severely affected were those who were poor and could not afford to purchase charcoal filters for their taps.
p. 160. Five years after the Lowell Daily Sun proclaimed that lead water pipes were safe, Lowell experienced one of the worst outbreaks of water-related lead poisoning recorded in modern history. . . . Furthermore, most cases improved once the individuals stopped drinking the city's tap water.
This was (p. 158) in the early 1890s. Twenty years later (p. 161) the superintendent of the Lowell water system was still in denial.
As late as the 1940s (p. 166) the Chicago municipal code required that only lead piping be used to connect homes to the city system. "Experts at the time were still unconcerned.
p. 176 - 177. In his landmark book, Plagues and Peoples, William McNeill suggested the epidemic diseases like cholera, and the fear the at surround them, had revolutionary implications for the structure of the state. Few historical episodes better illustrate this idea than the rise of municipal socialism in Glasgow.
p. 198. Recent statistical studies provide ample evidence that private water companies often provide more disease prevention that do public companies.
p. 205. There recent environmental developments suggest that water lead should continue to be a public health concern of at least moderate importance and interest.
November 28, 2021
Everyone who drinks water from plumbing should read this. Everyone who loves someone who drinks water from plumbing should read this. This is not a story about the past. It's a story about the present. What you don't know or believe might just destroy you and yours.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews