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DeMario Stewart, 27, of Flint said feeds his son Damonei Stewart during his two month check-up at Hurley Children's Center at the Flint Farmers' Market in Flint on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015.(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)
FLINT, Mich. --<span style="color: Red;">*</span>To the panicked parents in Flint: Help is on the way.
That's the message from doctors, university researchers and public health officials mobilizing to move an embattled city beyond shock and anger over its toxic water to a brighter<span style="color: Red;">*</span>next chapter — one that involves wrapping services around Flint's children to protect them from the worst effects of the lead that streamed through the city's water lines.
"This is somewhat of an unprecedented situation.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Usually when we talk about elevated blood-lead levels, it's about an individual child or an individual family situation. Here you have a large, communal source of lead," said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Dr. Dean Sienko, associate dean for public health<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine, which is helping lead the effort.
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While lead poisoning cannot be reversed,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>experts say that the right kind of nutrition, parenting and community services can mitigate the worst damage: learning disabilities, speech deficits and severe behavior problems in the coming years.
With guidance, in part, from a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>group known as the Flint Lead INnovation<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Team, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is expected to send letters this week to families recommending<span style="color: Red;">*</span>they talk to their child's doctor about immediate lead testing and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>long-term<span style="color: Red;">*</span>monitoring for developmental problems, as well as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>focusing on nutrition, since certain foods can reduce<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the absorption of lead.
Among other steps under discussion:
--Move local<span style="color: Red;">*</span>nutritionists and dietitians to pediatric offices and health clinics.
--Develop a phone app for Flint residents that would<span style="color: Red;">*</span>remind them of the importance of screening<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and even promote healthy recipes.
--Boost enrollment in federal programs such as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Women, Infants, and Children<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(WIC) and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Double Up Food Bucks,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>which<span style="color: Red;">*</span>give low-income families access to fresh produce.
--Increase aggressive<span style="color: Red;">*</span>screening to monitor kids for developmental delays,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>launch school-based stress-reduction programs and boost enrollment in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Early Head Start<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Head Start<span style="color: Red;">*</span>programs to give kids who may struggle with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>learning disabilities an academic boost before they start school.
--Expand home visiting programs in which health care and social workers meet with families, in part, to monitor children for developing learning disabilities or mental health issues.
The crisis came about as a result of Flint officials ending<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the city's water<span style="color: Red;">*</span>contract with Detroit in 2014, saying costs were too high and opting<span style="color: Red;">*</span>instead to join the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Karegnondi Water Authority, which is building a system to supply Genesee County with water from Lake Huron. But with that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>system not coming<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on line until next year,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Flint decided in the interim<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to pull<span style="color: Red;">*</span>water<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from the Flint River and treat it at its own facility. Complaints began almost immediately; last month, research by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Hurley Children's Center pediatrician, showed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a dangerous spike in children's blood-lead levels, corroborating water testing results earlier this year by a Virginia Tech researcher.
Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH program director for the pediatric residency at the Hurley Children's Hospital at Hurley Medical Center in Flint discusses how her research showed that the percentage of children with elevated blood-lead levels in some Flint ZIP codes nearly doubled since the city began to draw its water from the Flint River.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)
Amid accusations of a failure to properly treat the water and a cover-up,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Flint reconnected to the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Detroit water system<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a week ago.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>But it may take a few weeks to completely flush the system.
"We need to give parents hope, and we can do that," said <span style="color: Red;">*</span>Hanna-Attisha, who is now also helping lead a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>team of doctors and researchers.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"We need to help them build<span style="color: Red;">*</span>resilience for their kids."
Just down the hallway from Hanna-Attisha's office in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>new, colorfully bright Hurley clinic in downtown,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Janika Owens and Demario Stewart last week carried in their 2-month-old son,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Damonei, for a routine checkup. He was measured and weighed. Medical staff<span style="color: Red;">*</span>checked to make sure<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bones and organs are developing normally, even though lead poisoning's effects won't show up this early.
That leaves Damonei's parents wondering.
Although they've used bottled water for his formula, Owens at times had cooked with Flint water while she was pregnant. She'd brushed her teeth with it.
Lead can pass across the placenta to a fetus, studies have shown.
Who would ever think you couldn't<span style="color: Red;">*</span>trust<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— of all things —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>water?
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"I never thought I'd have to deal with this — ever," Demario Stewart said, trying to soothe his<span style="color: Red;">*</span>increasingly wriggly infant. "Ill never trust my water again."
Hanna-Attisha says she has seen parents streaming in almost every day in recent weeks<span style="color: Red;">*</span><span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>parents who wonder how much lead<span style="color: Red;">*</span>their children have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>ingested. And about<span style="color: Red;">*</span>whether their child has irreparable brain damage. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>And<span style="color: Red;">*</span>whether it will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>one day trigger the kind of learning or behavior problems that can set a life permanently off<span style="color: Red;">*</span>course.
"They wonder:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>'Did I protect my baby?' 'Did I trust too much?' " she said.
It's a grinding, toxic stress<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that finds access points in everyday inconveniences. Is the restaurant coffee made from Flint River water? Are the filters on the public drinking fountains adequate? Will the babysitter be as vigilant<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in getting bottled water?<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Is this a passing headache, or something more permanent?
Last week, Kaden Kyger's tiny fingers and face were slathered in strawberry yogurt as the toddler chased the family cats around the living room<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of their <span style="color: Red;">*</span>home.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>His mother believes he has been spared from lead poisoning because she used bottled water for his formula and she cooked<span style="color: Red;">*</span>using filtered tap water.
But then again...
The filter is getting old,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>June Kyger, 25, notes. When should she get a new one? <span style="color: Red;">*</span>She has<span style="color: Red;">*</span>heard there are free filters, but who has the best ones?
And what about lead testing for 16-month old Kaden? Who does that testing?
June Kyger, 25, of Flint holds her 16-month son, Kaden Kyger, while talking about their concerns about using Flint's water at her home in the south side Flint on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)
He<span style="color: Red;">*</span>seems fine — but then again...
The worries "every single day" are compounded by a sense of helplessness, said Kyger, who moved back to Flint earlier this year after several years away: "I don't really know my way around (city services) like I used to."
And some parents still aren't aware of the problem at all. Or they don't know help is available.
For every two clients served in the WIC<span style="color: Red;">*</span>program, it's estimated there is another eligible client who is not enrolled, said Mark Valacak, Genesee County's health officer.
"We have some very hard-to-reach populations," he said.
'Very, very unusual'
There's a symbiosis in this kind of public health initiative, too.
As researchers and doctors help residents navigate the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>years ahead, they will gather information from medical exams, cord blood testing of newborns, a review of low-weight births and miscarriages, results of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>water testing and geo-mapping of the hardest-hit areas. And that, in turn,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will guide<span style="color: Red;">*</span>future public health efforts.
"What has happened in Flint is very, very unusual. They have essentially conducted an uncontrolled experiment, in that they<span style="color: Red;">*</span>corroded the heck out of these ... lead pipes," said Wayne State University lead expert Shawn McElmurry, who last weekend was in Flint<span style="color: Red;">*</span>testing water in homes just 48 hours after the city switched back to Detroit water.
Secondary to helping Flint's residents, Flint's crisis can offer important lessons to other cities relying<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on aging infrastructure, he said.
Testing over the coming years<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will offer insight into how well "the infrastructure recovers."
All of this, though, will take work to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shift the conversation from finger-pointing to something more productive,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said Jeffrey Dwyer, a senior associate dean at MSU's College of Human Medicine, which<span style="color: Red;">*</span>already was positioned in Flint to work with the community.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Funded by a $9-million grant from the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, its researchers are focused on the public health problems that Flint residents identified as their most pressing: chronic disease, behavioral health and healthy behaviors.
Let others call for the investigations when it comes to the water issues, Dwyer said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for public health, the most immediate task is buffering Flint's families from the worst effects of lead.
"We can all do the finger-pointing, but at the end of the day, there are people who need our help, and we have an obligation to figure out how to provide that," he said.
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