Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
How citizen science uncovered the poisoning of a city
Flint, Michigan is a poor city. Maybe that's why the authorities weren't too bothered about reports that the drinking water was murky and tasted funny. The City Council insisted they were meeting regulations (that old, old story) and ignored the concerns raised by residents in the City Council meetings that the water smelled of sulfur and chlorine, often came out of the tap tinted the colour of urine or rust, and appeared to be causing a long list of health concerns. Even worse, they took decision after decision to hide what was going on. In the process they allowed the people of Flint to be poisoned.
Were it not for the (usually female) citizen scientists of Flint, backed by a handful of people with the resources to help them, the truth may have been buried and their kids would have continued to drink lead in their water.
Read the extraordinary and frankly terrifying story of how citizen science uncovered an appalling scandal here
Tags for Forum Posts: citizen science, community action, free reads, longread
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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FLINT is film maker Michael Moore's home town and he's done a great deal to publicise this. Appalling that this should happen in the world's richest, most powerful country, in the twenty first century.
Putting this fully right now, could cost billions of dollars.
Yet it's said that the authorities could have chosen to put cleaning chemicals into the old water pipes to scour them, prior to a switch of water supply, for a cost of $100 a day for three month.
Surely a case of a stitch in time?
They probably shouldn't have switched anyway.
Michael Moore in the Huffington Post
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Thanks, Liz.
This is incredibly important. There are clearly parallels with NOx and other emissions on our streets and the link to avoidable ill heath and death they cause.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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I agree. The ability of ordinary (although I think they are extraordinary) people to collect data to challenge powers that be and to publicise their finding widely through the internet is extremely important.
Another very strong thread that comes out of this scandal is how far those in power will go to cover up when they have caused a disaster. Denial, obfuscating and refusing to speak to, even bullying, people who try to challenge them - with utterly disastrous consequences for their citizens. As far as know the state governor is still in post and refusing to testify in Washington. This should be required reading for anyone in politics from local councillor up to Ministers - decision making and scrutiny aren't just a job, poor decisions can, in some cases be a matter of life and death.
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