To illustrate his point, he highlighted a USA Today Network report that revealed lead contamination in nearly 2,000 water systems across the 50 states.
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But like the swimming pool, the problem, Oliver said, isn’t just in the water. “It’s been steadily going down since 2003, and this year, we’ve allocated just $110 million”.
The possibility of ingesting lead paint dust is perhaps more common in the US than lead water poisoning. Oliver identified the myriad difficulties in preventing lead poisoning, including the fact that the locations of numerous lead pipes in the ground across the country are unknown and that lead paint dust poses an even bigger threat. America has approximately 7.3 million lead service lines, many of which are buried, and some studies show that partial replacement could cause even more harm.
“Lead is still all around us – our pipes, our walls and our air”. “Even low-level exposure can lead to irreversible damage, like lower IQs, antisocial behavior, and reduced attention span”, Oliver noted. An estimated 2.1 million households with a child under the age of 6 contain a lead hazard, leaving more than half a million children with elevated lead levels. “That is just a little more than Americans spent to go see Ride Along 2, a movie which, incidentally, the New York Post described as ‘as amusing as lead poisoning, ‘”.
Despite the outrage, Congress continues to deny the crucial funding needed to start removing lead from American homes.
“We’re not some third world country where you get a hundred thousand people who get poisoned for long periods of time”, assessed Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair. “The insane thing is, while lead abatement is expensive, it’s cost effective”. In a hilarious segment featuring Oscar and Elmo, Oliver joined in singing a depressing ditty about the dangers of lead.
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Oliver criticized the lack of funding appropriated to control lead hazards and pointed out that the problem was “obviously enough 20 years ago for Sesame Street to feel the need to address this”.
