Member-only story
How the Government Poisons Us
It’s not just in disadvantaged communities
Once upon a time, Flint, Michigan was home to several General Motors plants and had a bustling industry. Then the plants closed down. In 2002, Michigan’s governor, John Engler, declared the city was under a state of financial emergency. In 2011, Governor Rick Snyder put unelected managers in charge of the city. They reported to the state’s treasury department and not to the mostly black, disenfranchised citizens. As a cost-savings measure, in 2014, the water supply was switched from Detroit Water and Sewage to the Flint River.
Tens of thousands of people consumed toxic levels of lead. Legionnaire disease outbreaks also occurred, affecting many residents and killing a dozen of them.
What about now? Apparently, since 2019 the water in Flint is safe to drink.
However, there is another substance that continues to poison us that the government itself adds to our drinking water.
Municipal water providers in the United States use fluorine. According to the Oxford Dictionary, this chemical element has an atomic number of 9 and is a poisonous pale yellow gas that is part of the halogen series. It is the most reactive of all the elements and will cause severe burns it if comes in contact with the skin.
