Team:GW DC/Human Practices

Human Practices

In creating this project, it was extremely important to our members that we use the power of genetic engineering to improve the quality of life of vulnerable populations. An ongoing problem in the United States, as well as the world, is the lack of access to clean drinking water. We believe that access to clean drinking water is a human right, so we wanted to develop a product that would be accessible and easy to use, which could be distributed to many households.

In the United States, the city with the second largest amount of lead in drinking water is Newark, New Jersey. To combat this issue, the Newark Water Coalition (NWC) was formed in 2018. Our team interviewed co-founder Anthony Diaz, who opened our eyes to the serious dilemma that many Americans are facing.

Newark exceeded the federal action level of lead in drinking water since 2016, so the NWC works to educate Newark residents on the dangers of drinking lead contaminated water, distribute bottled water, and provide filters for faucets. The city government does provide testing, however it takes weeks to months for results to come through. Additionally, water in public housing is not allowed to be tested. Furthermore, many people do not trust the city’s test. Thus, the NWC provides independent testing. At the height of distributions during the summer of 2019, they provided 500 families a week with water. This situation became more dire through the COVID-19 pandemic, where distribution and supplies became much harder.

In any society, there are manifest and latent consequences to people’s experiences. The manifest consequences of lead-contaminated water include its toxic effects on human health. In long term generational effects, studies have shown a correlation between lead contamination and incidence of violence and learning disability. The latent functions are comparably sinister. At the surface level, living in a household with lead contaminated water is a huge inconvenience, as tenants must purchase the water they want to consume. Going deeper, however, this contributes to environmental racism. The city of Newark contains a large minority population, while the surrounding suburbs are affluent white neighborhoods. This contributes to black and brown people feeling like they get the short end of the stick since the surrounding neighborhoods do not encounter the issue of lead-contaminated water. This further contributes to the psychological effects of discrimination.

First, take a look at the following picture. This is a map of lead contamination risk from Vox with data from the Washington State Department of Health. This shows low (blue) to high (red) risk in Newark, New Jersey and its surrounding suburbs in 2016.

Now, compare that image to the following picture. This is a map of the racial populations in the same area in 2016 conducted by BestNeighborhood with data from the U.S. Census.

As you can see, in Newark itself, where we saw the highest risk of lead contamination, there is a majority of hispanic, black, and some asian populations. However, in the suburbs around Newark where there was a lower risk of lead contamination, the majority of these populations are white.

Because of the systemic racism explicitly and implicitly implemented in the American society, even the discrimination through access to clean water occurs. This environmental discrimination causes, at best, enormous inconveniences. More importantly, it may cause physical and mental health issues as exposure to lead has been correlated with negative behaviors and learning disabilities, which can be perpetuated through generations and lead to very long lasting effects. This plight can also have deep psychological effects, including trauma and increasing levels of stress from discriminated groups constantly feeling that they are experiencing a lower quality of life for reasons outside of their control. As we have hopefully just made clear to you, our project is very important to us. We hope to be able to really make a difference in people’s lives by providing an accessible solution to access clean drinking water.

In learning all of this information from Mr. Diaz, we knew that we had chosen an important project. It is clear that there is an immediate need for an accessible device which easily filters lead from water, which can be placed in any household to provide clean drinking water to residents.

References

Updated by Sarah Frostenson and Sarah Kliff on April 6, 2. (n.d.). Where is the lead exposure risk in your community? Retrieved October 24, 2020, from www.vox.com/a/lead-exposure-risk-map
Race Map for Newark, NJ and Racial Diversity Data. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2020, from https://bestneighborhood.org/race-in-newark-nj/