Police killing highlights Baltimore's lead poisoning crisis

[struggle4progress]

Baynard Woods in Baltimore
Friday 5 August 2016 09.43 EDT

Days after Baltimore officials announced that nearly 2,000 homes previously deemed safe from lead paint may in fact be contaminated, Korryn Gaines, who was suffering from severe lead poisoning, was shot and killed by police after a long standoff. At the time of her death, Gaines was involved in a lawsuit against former landlords for lead poisoning and in one Instagram post showing weapons she wrote: “They can try to come get it they gon leave with more Lead than they poisoned me wit” ...

In a lawsuit, Gaines claimed she grew up in “a sea of lead” and had a lifetime lead level of 12 mg/dL. The suit alleges that Gaines “suffered permanent brain damage resulting in developmental and behavioral injuries” ...

“Lead interrupts the stress reaction and so it distorts the way people view threats and so I think that’s absolutely germane to both Freddie Gray and Korryn Gaines,” said Lawrence Brown, a professor of public health at Morgan State University. “If [lead poisoning] is in fact disturbing and exaggerating the threat then you can understand why Freddie Gray is running and why Korryn Gaines has a shotgun when the police are knocking on her door.”

When Gaines was pulled over with an unregistered vehicle in March, she filmed the incident and refused to leave the car and had to be physically removed. On social media, Gaines referred to her arrest as a kidnapping and said she was held in isolation for two days without food and water before she was released. After she failed to appear in court, police officers came to her apartment to serve her with warrants. When they entered the apartment they found her with a shotgun. After nearly six hours of negotiations, according to police, she threatened to kill officers if they didn’t leave her home and they opened fire ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/05/korryn-gaines-baltimore-lead-poisoning-crisis

[scscholar]

1. Same problem with gas that was forced by law to be leaded

Yes, it lubricated valve seats, but it destroyed lives. Destroyed lives.

[SCantiGOP]

3. You're exactly right

but since the air was being breathed by rich people also it was removed from gasoline as soon as the threat was proven.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. I think lead poisoning due to high levels of lead in the drinking water

may be a LOT more common than anyone thinks! I mean, it would explain the steady rise of bizarre violent crimes across the nation (Unless of course the seeming rise is due to the fact that internet traffic makes the occurrence of bizarre violent acts more widely known!)

I wonder if the CDC is doing an investigation of lead poisoning already....

[Igel]

5. It more easily explains the decline in violent (etc.) crime in the US since the '60s.

Now, why crime should suddenly increase when there's no new lead pipe being laid and when every year there's less lead available from the soil and from paint is a mystery.

Flint's the odd-case out because something happened to increase the lead levels in some areas. (Not all, an important point here.)

[TheDebbieDee]

6. I think that the longer the pipes are in use...

And as the pipes degrade, they leach even higher levels of lead into the drinking water. It's been theorized that the fall of the Roman Empire can be linked to the centuries old Roman custom of using lead (plumbum?) in their water systems...

But back to Flint, I think I read or heard that the pollution in the river water caused the pipes to degrade even faster and leach even more lead into the water.

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Consequences of lead toxicity? Shocking framing by The Guardian, but a narrative repeated by WaPo.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/05/korryn-gaines-baltimore-lead-poisoning-crisis

Korryn Gaines: police killing highlights Baltimore's lead poisoning crisis
Both Gaines and Freddie Gray, who died in police custody last year, suffered from lead poisoning, something that has been pointed to as racist public policy

By Baynard Woods in Baltimore
Friday 5 August 2016 09.43 EDT

http://weaa.org/post/media-korryn-gaines-vigil-friday-city-college-md-aclu-questions-fed-immigration-policy
http://www.citypaper.com/news/features/bcp-041316-feature-lead-commentary-20160413-story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/08/03/did-lead-poisoning-and-outrage-over-police-violence-set-the-stage-for-korryn-gainess-death/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/freddie-grays-life-a-study-in-the-sad-effects-of-lead-paint-on-poor-blacks/2015/04/29/0be898e6-eea8-11e4-8abc-d6aa3bad79dd_story.html