Amicus Community Based Organizing Partners
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
Amicus Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Motion to Dismiss Lyons (Defense, Prosecution Response, Defense Reply)
Motion to Strike Dr. Kahn (Defense and Prosecution Reply)
Wayne State University has released another press release in response to our questions. This follows a prior press release last week (that was retracted less than 24 hours after posting) endorsed by other FACHEP faculty asserting that we were “bullies” and spreading “false information” and deserving of sanctions for our supposed “unethical” behavior. In the new press release, Wayne State University writes:
Dr. McElmurry is a committed scientist and educator, and an academician of the highest character. We have the utmost respect for the commitment and character of Dr. McElmurry…
Even the newer press release does NOT provide a specific response to any of our questions. Also, for the record, a month ago, we did alert Wayne State to our concerns related to repeated public claims of McElmurry’s work experience “in Flint” from 2010-2014. We have received no response to this day.
We provide the entire press release below:
April 4, 2018
Statements questioning the personal integrity of Shawn McElmurry, Ph.D. (Department of Civil Engineering, Wayne State University) and research conducted while he was a leader of the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership (FACHEP) team have been posted on the internet and widely circulated.
Wayne State University typically does not respond to postings on independent websites. These posts, however, were widely shared, and include unacceptable, inappropriate and vitriolic personal attacks on an individual faculty member. We feel it is necessary to defend our faculty member against these personal attacks.
Dr. McElmurry is a committed scientist and educator, and an academician of the highest character. We have the utmost respect for the commitment and character of Dr. McElmurry and the FACHEP research team.
As scientists and members of the community, we all have a responsibility to maintain the highest standards in all we do.
We have no doubt that Dr. McElmurry and his colleagues take this responsibility very seriously, and work tirelessly toward these goals for the public good.
Questions regarding the integrity of research projects are best reviewed in accordance with established procedures. This involves reviewing the facts and making informed conclusions for the benefit of the broad communities we serve. Wayne State has not received a formal request to investigate the Flint water infrastructure project. If we do, we will evaluate the credibility of the request and follow our established protocol as appropriate.
On December 15 Flintwaterstudy had two memorable dinners with Flint residents.
The first was with three members of the original team that helped expose the Flint water crisis in 2014-2015 including “Fighting” Tony Palladeno Jr. and his partner Leah, and Melissa Mays (co-founder of Wateryoufighting4). We first met Tony when residents were getting arrested for complaining about water, and of course, we met Melissa on our original Flint visit when we tested for disinfection by-products, chlorine and bacteria in Flint water heaters and cold water taps.
Ever since early 2016, these residents have been harsh critics of the EPA, State of MI, Dr. Edwards and Flintwaterstudy – they believe the water in Flint is getting worse with each passing day. To say we had a frank exchange about these and other issues would be an understatement (our sincere apologies to El Potrero staff and customers). Nonetheless, it was good seeing them again.
Like many Flint residents, Tony and Leah are having a tough time financially, because their property investments in Flint imploded – at least partly as a result of the Flint water crisis. Imagine a scenario in which you have invested your life savings in a community in Flint, and it evaporates as many people flee a city in crisis. On top of that consider the health and stress issues associated with the water from at least 2014-2015 and residual lack of trust. There does not seem to be any legal recourse to recover their lost investment either. In any case, while we may never agree on anything again when it comes to Flint water quality, these residents are truly amongst the original heroes of the Flint crisis. The entire country owes Flint residents a debt of gratitude for helping to expose national problems on lead in water and decaying infrastructure.
We then had a nice dinner organized by James Milton at Tia Helitas. James took the class on the Flint Water Crisis at UM-Flint and had a lot of great questions about infrastructure and water quality. His mom Lucille Milton, Dave Montgomery (Urban News), Chris Frye and Kay Doerr also attended. We were joined by Keri Webber and LeeAnne Walters (who was recovering from back surgery). The problems of high water rates, crazy water bills, and shut-offs were a main topic of discussion.
There is still a lot of work to be done in Flint. We can’t solve all of these problems, but with the $170 million in Federal funding, hopefully, we can make a dent in them.
Primary Author: Dr. Marc Edwards
Yesterday, the town of St. Joseph Louisiana—suffering from years without clean water or civilization as the rest of us know it, got an early Christmas present. The Governor of LA declared a state of water emergency. This follows in the footsteps of Flint and a USA Today series that exposed chronic problems associated with water infrastructure-inequality in rural American.
This small town with a per capita income of $9000, a declining population and a mayor under investigation for fiscal wrongdoing, has suffered through years of black or orange water, constant boil water alerts, school shutdowns for lack of clean water, multiple utility violations for failures to monitor and alert the public—and continued assurances that the water was “safe” (Figure 1). Residents have been fighting for years, but in the end, it took dogged persistence by locals and their advocates, media attention, and a little bit of independent water testing to bring clean water to these long-ignored residents.
The final battle started in early 2016, when residents hopes for a White House petition to help obtain clean water, fell short because this town of fewer than 1200 people couldn’t muster the 100,000 required signatures. In March and April of 2016, our colleague Dr. Adrienne Katner of LSU Health Sciences Center sent water sampling kits to a few residents that were supplied by Flintwaterstudy.org. Dr. Katner found elevated levels of lead as high as 42 ppb. We have since presented on St. Joe’s water woes at national conferences (view or download powerpoint below).
Thus empowered with information that there was a problem, citizens started to get some traction. Things started to really move when Janie Jones (President, Council on Policy & Social Impact) got engaged. Janie coordinated a sampling event with Adrienne and Flintwaterstudy on September 29, 2016, looking for lead and Legionella.
At that point, the state started investigating further, and they also found elevated lead and copper. Advocate pressure added fuel to the fire, and on Dec 16, 2016, Governor John Bel Edwards signed the declaration, which stated:
“The Town of St. Joseph has experienced water problems for years due to the poorly maintained and deteriorating water distribution system. Frequent breaks in the water distribution system provide a potential health risk because of the drop in water pressure. Out of an abundance of caution, the Louisiana Department of Health recommends that residents use an alternative source of water for personal consumption, including making ice, brushing teeth or using it for food preparation and rinsing of foods.”
The residents have been promised potable water until long-term solutions can be found. Congrats to everyone who is helping residents of St. Joe to get clean water. Special thanks to Janie Jones (President, Council on Policy & Social Impact) who told Flintwaterstudy:
“This is just the beginning for St. Joe residents—the hard work is all ahead of us. Let’s remember to keep people at the forefront.”
Legendary activist and MacArthur Fellow Wilma Subra has also been engaged in this battle.
Below is a short Flintwaterstudy video interview of our colleague Dr. Katner (LSU), who risked her career and “crossed the imaginary line” to help expose, and correct, this environmental injustice in St. Joe.
Primary Author: Dr. Marc Edwards
The “bad news” is that just like science would predict, the lead pipes in East Chicago are leaching dangerous levels of lead to water in East Chicago due to a lack of corrosion control. Thus, the horrible tragedy of childhood lead poisoning in this community is due to water “infrastructure-inequality” from lead plumbing, as well as the previously publicized lead contaminated soils.
The “good news” is that EPA Region 5 is taking a leadership role helping expose this tragedy. What a difference a year makes. Last year under old management, this same office was a world leader in obfuscation, leaving Flint’s kids completely unprotected by Federal law. Maybe it is shame over the Flint fiasco, bad management that has now resigned, or good new management—whatever the reason, let’s give credit where it is due. Because harm from past lead exposure can never be undone– we can only prevent future harm– by helping to get East Chicago residents lead filters the EPA is doing the right thing.
On the other hand, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) remains incapable of learning from their own past mistakes. They wrote another “scientifically indefensible” report that caused 5 years of additional harm to East Chicago children by concluding:
Sorry East Chicago kids, but CDC’s “conclusion” was just flat out wrong. You should never have been drinking the water, playing in soil, or breathing the air for that matter.
Incredibly, this flawed East Chicago report was written, just 7 months after CDC/ATSDR was publicly reamed in Congress and in the press, for false statements in 2004 that covered up the D.C. lead in drinking water tragedy. After they got caught, CDC then attempted to completely excuse themselves by claiming “Looking backward six years, it’s clear that this report could have been written a little better (Tom Sinks, CDC)” or “.. in its urgency to rapidly assess the situation, the CDC communicated scientific results poorly (CDC Director Tom Frieden).” CDC was also quoted in the Washington Post, claiming that kids losing 3-4 IQ points were not a big deal because “at these levels, the effects are subtle” with effects that are “detectable in population studies but generally not in individual children.”
CDC then wrote another falsified report in 2010, which in Orwellian fashion claimed that their actual scientific conclusion in the 2004 report, was the exact opposite of what they actually wrote. When called out on this falsification, they refused to respond to a letter with 21 signatories (see letter at the end). CDC refused to retract their outrageous rewrite of history. The exact same Orwellian science stooges are probably trying to rewrite the history of East Chicago as we speak. One can only hope that there will be a change in attitude under a new director.
Of course, we are still waiting for CDC to apologize for their unethical behavior at Tuskeegee, and ignoring Tuskeegee whistleblower Peter Buxtun for 5 years, so do not hold your breath (Figure 1). CDC’s lesson learned in the aftermath of Tuskegee in 1985? “Do the study at a time when there won’t be a bigot problem (Listen at 32:15 to 33:10).” The lesson CDC learned from D.C. was “We can get away with anything.” They did, so now kids in Flint and East Chicago had to pay a price for their ineptitude.
What a legacy. One group of corrupt CDC pseudo-scientists, with the complete backing of their management, has now played a role in creating public health tragedies that needlessly elevated the blood lead of children in Washington D.C., Flint, and now East Chicago. Not to mention promoting flawed policies that endangered children all over the U.S. and the world. They attack good actors and defend bad actors– quality science is viewed as an afterthought or an impediment. It makes the great work of some CDC/ATSDR employees who really helped in the Flint Recovery, including the CDC Legionella team and the ATSDR efforts under Dr. Patrick Breysse, all the more remarkable and appreciated.
America’s children cannot afford an untrustworthy and unethical CDC/ATSDR or EPA. Sometimes delivering “bad news” is much better than saying nothing at all– especially when comes in the form of the truth with recommended public health interventions that will protect children. We hope that EPA R5 can keep the “bad news” flowing, in accordance with both ethical science and EPA’s health mission.
Primary Author: Dr. Marc Edwards