Risky Drinking Water Pathogen Has Outsized Effect on Black Americans

A respiratory illness linked to bacteria that grow in building plumbing and water distribution pipes is exhibiting more pronounced geographic, seasonal, and racial patterns, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of nearly three decades of case data.

Researchers knew that Legionnaires’ disease, an illness resembling pneumonia, peaks in the summer, affects older people, and is most prevalent in the United States in the swathe of land that stretches from the Midwest to New England. The CDC’s analysis confirmed that those trends are strengthening. But what stood out most to Albert Barskey, the lead author of the study, were racial outcomes.

Cases among Black Americans, when adjusted for age and population, were about 25 percent higher than among white Americans. And that gap, one of many environmental health risks with a racial divide, was growing.

Line 5’s Impact on Climate Change Being Reviewed as Part of Tunnel Decision

The Michigan Public Service Commission is best known as the government body that decides whether gas and electric utilities can raise their rates.

But, the commission has other duties. Right now, it’s looking at whether Enbridge Energy’s plans to move a segment of its Line 5 oil and liquid natural gasses pipeline into a tunnel is safe.

In an unusual move, the commission is also reviewing what keeping Line 5 operating means for climate change.

Environmental groups, some businesses, Native American tribes and Governor Gretchen Whitmer, among others, want the nearly 70 year old Line 5 pipeline shut down. Line 5 sits on the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac which connects Lakes Michigan and Huron. Advocates are worried about the risk of an oil spill in the lakes.

What’s Up With Water – February 22, 2022
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Legionnaires’ disease is the deadliest waterborne illness in the United States, killing about one in 11 people it infects. Its symptoms similar to those of pneumonia, the disease is contracted by inhaling water droplets contaminated with Legionella bacteria. The need for a national response is becoming more urgent. The number of reported cases has increased five-fold since the year 2000. Scientists attribute the increase to a confluence of factors: aging water infrastructure, an aging population, better diagnostic tests, complex building plumbing, and water and energy conservation measures that result in warm, stagnant water within buildings. Those are the conditions in which the bacteria like to grow.

Circle of Blue reporter Brett Walton attended Legionella Conference 2019 where he discussed the battle to control the disease with Patrick Breysse, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.