Alderman’s lead proposal questioned
One alderman’s proposal to overhaul the city’s recommendations for avoiding lead exposure from drinking water is receiving a tepid response from the Milwaukee Health Department and some local medical experts.
The resolution by Ald. Tony Zielinski would direct the Health Department to “immediately recommend that to avoid potential lead exposure, women of childbearing age and children under the age of 6 should not drink unfiltered water and that children under the age of 6 should be tested for lead.”
It also calls on the Health Department to provide written recommendations to Milwaukeearea obstetricians, pediatricians and public and private health care facilities with the same guidelines.
But John Brill, the former president of the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, warned “this resolution would do more harm than good.”
Brill said there was no scientific basis for extending the filtering advisory to all locations in the city, and warned that as a result it could create mistrust between doctors and the Health Department.
“It directs the Health Department to communicate an advisory with no scientific basis to clinicians, thereby creating potential community skepticism of all future MHD professional communications,” Brill wrote.
Bevan Baker, the city’s health commissioner, also warned that the recommendations in Zielinski’s resolution are “in conflict” with current research and guidelines, and could erode doctors’ confidence in all advice from the department.
“The City of Milwaukee Health Department has carefully reviewed current medical and scientific guidance, and does not find evidence to support a recommendation that people in homes without a lead service line or lead plumbing need to use a drinking water filter,” Baker said in a statement Friday.
Baker also stressed the importance of an awareness that lead-based paint, “ingested as dust or small paint chips from chipping, peeling or cracking paint in the home, after household renovations, as well as the track-in of contaminated soil, is the most common source of lead exposure for young children who live in older housing” in a May letter to Zielinski.
The Wisconsin Medical Society also said it could not support “additional recommendations based on the current scientific literature” such as universal precautions of only filtered water for children and pregnant women, or filtered water only for all women of child-bearing potential.
The Health Department recommends households with lead service lines or internal plumbing flush their pipes by running cold tap water for three minutes if the water has been stagnant for an extended period of time, Baker said. It also urges the use of lead filters if a household is at risk for lead and is home to children under the age of 6, or pregnant or breastfeeding women.
The proposal is expected to be debated at the next Public Safety and Health Committee meeting.
It does have the support of the Hunger Task Force, which is urging action on the resolution.
“Full transparency about this public health crisis is critical in educating women of child-bearing age, parents and caregivers of infants and young children, area medical professionals and other affected Milwaukee populations about lead exposure and ways to mitigate lead absorption through drinking water,” Hunger Task Force spokeswoman Sarah Kikkert said in an email.
The resolution comes as Milwaukee is set to receive $2.6 million in lead service line replacement funding through an agreement with the state. The money will be used to help homeowners, schools and day care centers provide safe drinking water by replacing old lead service lines.
Gov. Scott Walker announced the lead service line replacement money for Milwaukee on Wednesday as part of a $13.8 million package for 35 municipalities around the state.
“We appreciate the state’s dedication of these federal funds to Milwaukee and other cities to support lead service line removal,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said in a statement. “Given the statewide impact of this issue and statewide concerns about local government finances, we hope for continued state support for Milwaukee and other communities seeking to remove lead service lines quickly.”