Feb
13
13
Rebecca Renner
What Would George Say–Academic Or Advocate?
Posted by Rebecca Renner on February 13, 2009 in Uncategorized
A new ethics question has popped up in the ongoing lead-in-D.C.’s-water saga as concerned Washington, D.C., residents and ethics experts ask: Did the D.C. Water & Sewer Authority (DC WASA) hire an academic or an advocate when the utility signed a contract with Tee Guidotti, the former chair of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University (GWU), to provide public health expertise about lead in drinking water?
In two research papers and numerous lectures and public statements, Guidotti and his team showed that the D.C. lead-in-drinking-water crisis from 2001 to 2004 had no identifiable public health impact. This work, funded in part by DC WASA, is coming under scrutiny due to recent publication of an Environmental Science & Technology paper, Edwards et al. 2009, which says that from 2001 to 2004, hundreds of babies and toddlers in Washington had elevated levels of blood lead as a result of the tap water contamination.
Language in the contract between GWU and DC WASA appears to contradict GWU’s own policy concerning the freedom of academics (PDF) to publish their work without approval from sponsors.
Lead In D.C.’s Drinking Water
Jan
27
27
Posted by Rebecca Renner on January 27, 2009 in Uncategorized
From 2001 to 2004, tens of thousands of people in Washington, D.C., unknowingly drank tap water that contained lead. The “D.C. lead-in-water crisis” was one of the most serious episodes of heavy-metal contamination of drinking water in modern U.S. history. Although officials working for D.C.’s water utility, the Washington Area Sewer Authority (WASA), the D.C. Department of Health (DC DOH), and the U.S. EPA knew about the problem, the public was in the dark. The contamination persisted for three years before the Washington Post informed D.C. residents about the situation in a story published in 2004.
The news outraged parents who were worried about their children’s health, angered politicians who hadn’t been told, and created anxiety among public-health experts who initially feared a community-wide crisis. Children’s health was the focus of concern because lead’s effects on neurodevelopment are notorious—low levels of exposure can cause a long list of problems that include hyperactivity, decreased learning ability, and trouble paying attention.
In the aftermath of the crisis, public-health experts, including scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, examined blood lead data collected by DC DOH and water lead data collected by WASA and concluded that there had been little if any harm to the public.
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