https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-11-24/why-does-the-us-still-have-lead-pipes-blame-the-lead-industries-association

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Opinion
Stephen Mihm, Columnist

Why Does the US Still Have Lead Pipes? Blame This Trade Group

A now-defunct organization spent decades casting doubt on the science
that showed just how dangerous the metal could be.

November 24, 2024 at 8:00 AM EST
[160x160]
By Stephen Mihm
Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, is
coauthor of "Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of
Finance."
It's about time.

It's about time.

Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America
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Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a ruling
mandating the removal of all lead pipes supplying drinking water in
the US. Whether the rule will survive the incoming Donald Trump
administration is an open question -- one that could have serious,
even life-threatening implications for the more than nine million or
so homes that get their water by "lead service lines."

Given what we know about the dangers posed by lead-contaminated
drinking water, it's worth asking: What took so long? How is it
possible that such large swaths of the US still rely on poisonous
pipes?

 
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