The Care2 petition has gathered over 32,000 signatures
A Lansing mother has started a Care2 petition to support new legislation from Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) that would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to notify communities immediately when lead is detected. The bill would also require communities to have a plan to clean it up and provide residents with safe, clean water in the meantime. The petition has gathered over 32,000 signatures.
VIEW THE CARE2 PETITION HERE: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/387/156/927/
Care2 petition author Jennifer Crispin lives just under an hour from Flint, which has been experiencing a lead water crisis.
Crispin says she lives in an older home that still has patches of lead paint on the outside. She painted over the patches with new, vinyl paint, because she couldn’t afford a full remediation.
“I remember the sick, stressed feeling I used to get in my gut looking at those chunky little pieces back when my kids were small enough that they put everything in their mouths, ashamed that we didn’t have the money to have it all removed,” Crispin told Care2. “That’s the same feeling I have whenever I think of the parents of Flint. The government failed them by exposing their families to lead, and then telling them that it was okay and there was nothing they needed to do.”
Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows over 40 percent of states that reported lead test results in 2014 have higher rates of lead poisoning among children than Flint. Despite this fact, in 2012 Congress cut funding for lead programs by 93 percent. Congress partially restored the funding after facing backlash, but funding is still barely more than half of previous levels.
“The events in Flint exposed an awful truth about our country,” Crispin says. “We are poisoning our children. “
