From the perspective of the public health community, the threat of lead exposure was connected exclusively to lead paint and paint dust, which were thought to be the gravest and most common threats. But particulate chunks of lead that break off inside a water pipe and find their way into a drinking glass or baby bottle can be just as loaded with lead as a chip of paint. Unfortunately, the dismissals and distortions of the CDC during the D.C. water crisis—and its refusal for years to admit that lead in water caused harm to children—had misled Dean Dean and many others in public health, just as
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