Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech Civil and Environmental Engineering professor released a selection unpublished results from his team’s study of the 2015 outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease that killed 12 people in Flint, Michigan. Edwards, who is most known for sounding the alarm about the dangerous levels of lead in the Flint water system in 2015, believes that the Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak is a result of the water supply switch to the Flint river, coupled with the lack of any application of anti-corrosive and chlorination treatments. To conduct this study, Professor Edwards and his team simulated the outbreak in a lab. Edwards and his team found that legionella bacteria thrived within the corroded pipes. The abnormally high levels of iron are believed to have acted as the primary ‘food’ source for the legionella bacteria, coupled with the lack of disinfectant usage dramatically expanded the levels found within the water supply.
Researcher Concludes That Flint Water System Was A Perfect Storm for Legionnaires’ Outbreak was last modified: April 4th, 2017 by