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Help Stop Another Flint Disaster
https://www.change.org/p/help-stop-another-flint-disaster
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan is grabbing national headlines and evoking outrage. Children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning, people have died from Legionnaire’s disease, and its long-term health impacts are still unknown. Everyone from President Obama to Erin Brockovich has spoken out. As a plumbing contractor of 40 years, Flint is my nightmare come true.
Los Angeles has switched to the same cheap disinfectant, chloramine, which is believed to have compounded Flint’s water crisis. Chloramine strips lead and copper piping, and sends these metals straight into our water supply, putting anyone who drinks the water at risk for lead poisoning and other serious health issues. I believe if nothing is done soon, Los Angeles could become the next Flint.
Please, let’s not allow another Flint tragedy to happen here in LA, the nation’s second most populous city. For the safety of millions, call on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to revert back to chlorine or an alternative to disinfect its drinking water. Chlorine, in itself, is not a benign disinfectant, and there are far better alternatives out there. But since our goal is to rid the system of chloramine as quickly as possible, we have requested and immediate switch back to chlorine, with which the LADWP has extensive experience, until better alternatives, can be implemented.
New studies show that chloramine disinfection by-products (DBPs), which are created when chloramine comes into contact with dirty water, are up to 10,000 times more toxic than those of chlorine, and they are totally unregulated. Not only this, but the World Health Organization has found that chloramine is 2,000 to 100,000 times less effective than chlorine in killing many diseases, including E. Coli, rotaviruses, and even polio.
There are safer alternatives recommended by the EPA. But chloramine is the cheapest, and that is why municipalities across the nation are quietly switching. Chloramine is contraindicated for anyone on dialysis. It is deadly to fish at the levels currently used in our drinking water. This is not a harmless chemical.
And who suffers most? Ask Flint residents -- they will tell you it’s not the public utilities officials, who made this choice to cut corners and jeopardize their health. It is their children, their loved ones. As Erin Brockovich has said, “Speak up, and tell your water utilities, state officials, and the EPA, ‘we are informed, we understand the issue, and we do not want you to continue contaminating our water supplies.’
I am asking Angelenos to hold their utilities accountable, before it’s too late. Please sign my petition demanding that the LADWP immediately switch back to chlorine, so we may avoid a Flint-level disaster.
To learn more about chloramine and for a list of resources, please visit: http://www.trmplumbing.com/chloramine
https://www.change.org/p/help-stop-another-flint-disaster
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan is grabbing national headlines and evoking outrage. Children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning, people have died from Legionnaire’s disease, and its long-term health impacts are still unknown. Everyone from President Obama to Erin Brockovich has spoken out. As a plumbing contractor of 40 years, Flint is my nightmare come true.
Los Angeles has switched to the same cheap disinfectant, chloramine, which is believed to have compounded Flint’s water crisis. Chloramine strips lead and copper piping, and sends these metals straight into our water supply, putting anyone who drinks the water at risk for lead poisoning and other serious health issues. I believe if nothing is done soon, Los Angeles could become the next Flint.
Please, let’s not allow another Flint tragedy to happen here in LA, the nation’s second most populous city. For the safety of millions, call on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to revert back to chlorine or an alternative to disinfect its drinking water. Chlorine, in itself, is not a benign disinfectant, and there are far better alternatives out there. But since our goal is to rid the system of chloramine as quickly as possible, we have requested and immediate switch back to chlorine, with which the LADWP has extensive experience, until better alternatives, can be implemented.
New studies show that chloramine disinfection by-products (DBPs), which are created when chloramine comes into contact with dirty water, are up to 10,000 times more toxic than those of chlorine, and they are totally unregulated. Not only this, but the World Health Organization has found that chloramine is 2,000 to 100,000 times less effective than chlorine in killing many diseases, including E. Coli, rotaviruses, and even polio.
There are safer alternatives recommended by the EPA. But chloramine is the cheapest, and that is why municipalities across the nation are quietly switching. Chloramine is contraindicated for anyone on dialysis. It is deadly to fish at the levels currently used in our drinking water. This is not a harmless chemical.
And who suffers most? Ask Flint residents -- they will tell you it’s not the public utilities officials, who made this choice to cut corners and jeopardize their health. It is their children, their loved ones. As Erin Brockovich has said, “Speak up, and tell your water utilities, state officials, and the EPA, ‘we are informed, we understand the issue, and we do not want you to continue contaminating our water supplies.’
I am asking Angelenos to hold their utilities accountable, before it’s too late. Please sign my petition demanding that the LADWP immediately switch back to chlorine, so we may avoid a Flint-level disaster.
To learn more about chloramine and for a list of resources, please visit: http://www.trmplumbing.com/chloramine