CBS Evening News open - 1993-04-08

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:03] Thousands are sick and the chief suspect

[0:05] is the water supply.

[0:07] In Los Angeles, dramatic final arguments

[0:10] in the trial of four police officers

[0:11] charged with violating the civil rights

[0:13] of Rodney King.

[0:16] And eye on America, tonight the battle

[0:19] over gun control and surprising new

[0:21] ammunition for those who want it.

[0:25] This is the CBS Evening News.

[0:32] Good evening. I'm Connie Chung sitting

[0:33] in tonight for Dan Rather. Don't drink

[0:36] the water unless you boil it first. You

[0:38] might expect that kind of warning in

[0:40] some third world country, but that's

[0:42] what they're telling almost a million

[0:43] people today about Milwaukee's water

[0:46] supply. Correspondent Giselle Fernandez

[0:48] has the story.

[0:51] Milwaukee's water supply could be making

[0:53] thousands all over the city sick. Today,

[0:56] health officials issued a stern warning.

[0:59] Don't drink the water. It may be

[1:00] contaminated. It would be advisable for

[1:03] people to err on the side of caution and

[1:05] to boil water for drinking and washing

[1:08] food.

[1:10] The advisory had thousands of worried

[1:11] residents rushing to buy bottled water.

[1:14] Stores not prepared for the crisis were

[1:16] wiped out and were frantically ordering

[1:18] emergency shipments. It's been crazy for

[1:20] the past hour and a half. All of the

[1:23] people buying this water. The city is

[1:25] taking every precaution. Schools are

[1:27] even safeguarding their drinking

[1:28] fountains. But already thousands are

[1:30] complaining of fever, vomiting, and

[1:32] diarrhea. How are you feeling today?

[1:35] Crummy. It took a week for health

[1:37] officials to target the drinking water.

[1:39] Tests on eight patients who drank from

[1:41] the tap uncovered a rare parasite called

[1:43] cryptosporidium.

[1:45] It's an organism found in animal feces

[1:47] that while uncommon could have crept

[1:49] into the water supply. We were not

[1:51] panicked by this. We have a very

[1:53] thorough and well-developed

[1:54] investigatory process and we're

[1:56] following the standard protocols and

[1:58] procedures. Health officials say it will

[2:00] take at least a week of testing to know

[2:02] for sure that it's the water making

[2:04] people sick.

[2:05] It wouldn't be the first time. In 1987,

[2:08] 13,000 residents in Carrollton, Georgia

[2:10] were affected by a similar outbreak of

[2:12] illness linked to water tainted with

[2:14] cryptosporidium. Other cases have been

[2:17] reported in Medford, Oregon and near San

[2:19] Antonio, Texas. Other parasites have

[2:21] caused at least 20 other cases of

[2:23] infection. The water manager

[2:27] it should test every day,

[2:29] should anticipate, should be monitoring

[2:31] their watershed,

[2:33] and then should be doing even more.

[2:35] Health officials from New York to

[2:37] California say most of the nation's

[2:38] drinking water is relatively safe. But

[2:41] last year, six states failed to meet

[2:43] safe drinking water standards. And the

[2:45] lesson of Milwaukee may be that with

[2:47] money-strapped government unable to

[2:49] adequately enforce those standards, any

[2:51] community could be at risk at any time.

[2:54] Giselle Fernandez, CBS News, New York.

[2:57] It's a lesson a lot of other Americans

[2:59] are already living with. Take the Boston

[3:02] area, for example, where many people

[3:04] have a problem with lead in the water.

[3:06] Correspondent Jacqueline Adams reports

[3:08] on that part of the story.

[3:10] Now, what is

[3:13] that? Three-year-old Cassandra Parcos is

[3:15] a bright, lively child. But when she was

[3:17] just 9 months old, a blood test showed

[3:19] she had been poisoned by lead. Lead in

[3:21] the tap water her parents used to make

[3:23] baby formula. The Parcos' water had a

[3:26] lead level 10 times above the maximum

[3:29] EPA standard.

[3:31] It will never come out. It is something

[3:33] that just settles in your bones, settles

[3:35] in your body. And so whenever she's

[3:36] hyper, has a hyper day or something, I'm

[3:38] always thinking, oh, you know, it's the

[3:40] effects of the lead. Oh god, you know,

[3:41] it's

[3:42] it's going to get worse. Lead poisoning

[3:44] can lower a child's IQ and impair both

[3:47] mental and physical development. The

[3:49] Environmental Protection Agency says

[3:50] drinking water accounts for up to 20% of

[3:53] the lead exposure in the US. In fact,

[3:55] the most recent EPA survey shows that 32

[3:58] million people in cities in 26 states

[4:00] are using public water systems with lead

[4:03] levels far above established

[4:05] regulations. No one should be drinking

[4:07] water straight out of the tap early in

[4:09] the morning or at the end of the day if

[4:11] they

[4:14] the flowers.

[4:15] No. What