Public health officials and experts said that handwashing can help people avoid COVID-19, but this simple activity can be difficult for millions of people in the U.S. because of lack of access to clean water and the potential of lead exposure, which can be harmful especially to children.
Researchers found in 2015 that nearly 21 million Americans or more than 6 percent of the population relied on water supplies that violated nationwide health standards. Many of those people are still exposed today to contaminated water, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Business Insider reported. Oscar Granaeos, a resident and father of four in Newark, N.J., is quoted in the article about his worries that the water in his home could expose his family to lead. He expressed concern that the lack of safe water also increases their risk of catching the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 since they cannot wash their hands regularly. ”I have a newborn, and even if I wash a cup, there’s the possibility that something could stick to it, and that could affect them in the future,” he said.
Exposure to lead in drinking water has different effects on adults and the young. Lead could contribute to cardiovascular conditions, like hypertension, decreased kidney function and reproductive problems in adults, while children are likely to exhibit behavior and learning problems, lower IQ levels, slowed growth, hearing problems and anemia, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). An article in the American Journal of Public Health, published in 2017, reported that people of color and low-income residents commonly live in areas with water contaminants or are prone to lead contamination. According to the Business Insider article, 9,000 households in Detroit lost their water supply in January because of unpaid bills and nearly 68 percent of those houses were then abandoned or unoccupied in April. These neighborhoods without access to clean water in the city have high cases of COVID-19.
“This is not people not wanting to pay their bills — these are Detroiters that are either disabled, unemployed or the working poor that cannot meet the high, increasing costs of water in the city of Detroit,” Cecily McClellan, founder of We the People of Detroit, told Business Insider. Thousands of families in Detroit and Newark have been relying on donated bottled water amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But restrictions set to control the spread of the disease also limited their sources of clean water. Many retailers have been required to provide only two large water bottles to people to avoid hoarding of in-demand supplies. Stay-at-home orders also made it difficult to get donations of water.
Newark reported in early July its first positive lead-testing results in three years. The average lead levels in the city’s water supply dropped below 15 parts per billion.
