Emails Reveal Early Suspicions of a Flint Link to Legionnaires’ Disease

"Michigan state officials were aware of an increase in Legionnaires’ disease cases and a possible tie to Flint’s troubled water supply at least 10 months before Gov. Rick Snyder informed the public of the situation last month, newly obtained emails show.

The emails, obtained through a public records request by Progress Michigan, a liberal advocacy group, indicate that county health officials were concerned last March about a wave of Legionnaires’ cases, and were at the time raising the possibility of a connection to the city’s switch to a new water source, the Flint River.

“Essentially,” the county health officials are “putting up the flare” and asserting that the “uptick in cases is directly attributable to the river as a drinking water source,” said an official at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in an email to his state colleagues March 13."

Monica Davey and Mitch Smith report for the New York Times February 4, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"APNewsBreak: Officials Warned Of Water, Legionnaires' Link" (AP)