The lead poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan touches on almost every aspect in the daily life of a health department: lead poisoning, water quality, health equity, reproductive health, and other social, political, and environmental impacts. This crisis underscores the basic fundamental need to have safe food, air, and water.
As always, the role of our health departments is to promote and protect the health and well-being of all people in their communities. The National Association of County & City Health Officials and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, alongside our federal partners, support our colleagues in Genesee County and the state of Michigan. We will continue to update our members about further developments and opportunities to assist with the ongoing crisis and help Flint emerge as a strong and resilient community. Together we are working to immediately learn the lessons from this crisis to better inform public health at the local, state, and national level.
Both NACCHO and ASTHO have a history of responding to emerging issues by leveraging our resources, networks, and members to support the needs of local and state public health departments. Both organizations have been actively communicating with local, state, and federal stakeholders. We will coordinate with all of our partners to assist with needed capacity and resources in this crisis, including epidemiology, surveillance, screening, risk communication, education, remediation, long-term recovery, and policy.
