Member-only story
Benton Harbor Is Latest Black City Hit By Water Crisis
Water crisis is similar to Flint situation
By Manny Otiko
So it happened again, another Michigan city, another water crisis. But this time, it’s Benton Harbor.
According to news reports, the Benton Harbor water crisis has been around since 2018. According to Democracy Now!, local tap water contains lead levels 60 times the federal limit. Exposure to lead is harmful to children and pregnant women. Lead also causes developmental delays and behavior problems in children.
“It’s a irreversible, potent neurotoxin,” said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, in a Democracy Now! interview. “It especially impacts developing children. It erodes cognition, so actually lowers IQ levels. It impacts behavior and development, causing learning problems, attention problems, focusing problems, causes growth problems and hearing problems. And we now know that kids exposed to lead can present later on in life with things like high blood pressure and kidney disease and gout, and even things like early dementia and Alzheimer’s.”
Hanna-Attisha’s work also exposed water pollution in Flint.
