From 2014 to 2017, thousands of children people in Flint, Michigan, were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead after city officials began drawing water from a nearby river. But the dangers didn’t stop there: Residents also suffered the third largest outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in U.S. history, with at least 87 people infected and 12 dead. Now, a new study adds support to the idea that a drop in chlorine levels in the water supply may have sparked the epidemic.
“It’s a high-quality study,” says Nicholas Ashbolt, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, who was not involved in the work. He says it’s “probably the first time” scientists have seen clear evidence of a relationship between chlorine levels and Legionnaires’ disease. But not all experts are convinced the relationship is straightforward.
The water from the Flint River was more corrosive than the region’s previous water sources thanks to a higher concentration of chloride, which can leach lead from pipes. But corrosive water can unleash other metals as well, including iron, which poses a double risk: It promotes the growth of bacteria, including Legionella pneumophila, which causes a severe and dangerous form of pneumonia, but also binds and inactivates chlorine, which is added to the water supply as a disinfectant.
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