Correspondence among

Quick recap on the interactions this week from the MDHHS side on the Flint water issue. Today the City of Flint issued the attached “Lead Advisory” for residents to be aware of lead levels in drinking water and issued suggestions from the Genesee County Health Department as to what residents could do to reduce risk. These include: -- flushing cold-water pipes by running water for approximately 5 minutes, --using only water from the cold-water tap for drinking, cooking and making baby formula --installing a water filter that is NSF-certified for lead removal. We worked with the Genesee County Health Department throughout the week to get them in a more pro-active mode to provide this guidance publicly and to encourage citizens to have the City test their water if they were concerned about the quality of water at their home. The health department also issued this fact sheet ; on Thursday providing additional information on the issue. MDHHS epidemiologists continue to review the “data” provided by a Hurley hospital physician that showed an increase in lead activity following the change in water supply. While we continue to review this data, we have stated publicly that Hurley conducted their analysis in a much different way than we do at the department. Hurley used two partial years of data, MDHHS looked at five comprehensive years and saw no increase outside the normal seasonal increases. The Hurley review was also a much smaller sample than MDHHS data as ours includes all hospital systems in Flint as well as outside laboratories. We have also provide the attached data chart that outlines if the elevated blood lead levels were being driven by a change in water, we would have seen the elevated levels remain high after the change in water source. We have also communicated that for WIC beneficiaries in Flint with documentation of unsanitary water, they may be able to receive ready to feed formula and have encouraged families to contact WIC to see if they are eligible for this formula. SNAP beneficiaries are able to purchase bottled water with their SNAP funds. Talking points from MDHHS are attached as well. Thank you, G xxxEND_PAGE:deq24_b095_0257_0257_1