-
Water utilities have never been required to thoroughly inventory lead pipes except in a crisis. Health experts warn problems with these “underground poisonous straws” can arise out of the blue.
-
Kansas City will be one of 11 U.S. host cities in the 2026 World Cup. Plus, venison donated to food pantries could contain trace amounts of lead — but in Kansas and Missouri, you won't get a warning.
-
Iowa requires warning labels about the possible presence of lead in shot-harvested venison. Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska do not.
-
Years before the Stonewall uprising, Drew Shafer started Kansas City's first gay rights organization and published the first LGBTQ magazine in the Midwest. It was that effort, in part, that made Stonewall a turning point in the gay rights movement. Plus, how the lead industry lied to the American public for decades about the dangers of its toxic products.
-
The lead industry characterized lead poisoning as a problem of poor people and minorities to protect its sales during the 20th century.
-
Lawmakers in both parties overwhelmingly supported requiring Missouri schools to test and filter children’s drinking water.
-
A provision that would limit the amount of lead allowed in school drinking water to five parts per billion has been tacked onto an education bill.
-
Missouri would stand apart from Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska by requiring testing and remediation.
-
Kansas and Missouri have some the nation's highest rates of elevated blood lead levels in children, leaving families to deal with health consequences. Plus, bird flu is sweeping the Midwest.
-
Researchers say even a small amount of the toxin can harm kids’ development. One 2021 study found Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri had some of the highest rates of elevated blood lead levels in children.
-
Health officials say there is no safe level for exposure among children.
-
Kansas State University will use land plots in Kansas City for its study to find ways to reduce and stabilize lead in the soil, a threat especially dangerous to children under the age of six.