In Flint, fears of showering bring desperate measures

FLINT, Mich. >> Near the top of the daily challenges that Flint residents face in a city without safe drinking water is how and where to shower.

Families are going to extraordinary lengths to find places where they can bathe without fear, taking measures that many say add to the upheaval that has been part of their lives since state officials confirmed last fall that their water was contaminated with dangerous levels of lead.

Some have found cheap memberships at gyms just outside the city and use them to bathe more than exercise. Others waited in a long line last month to receive contraptions called Pump-N-Sprays: nozzles and foot pumps that can be attached to 5-gallon bottles of water as makeshift showers.

One couple has traveled regularly to a truck stop to shower, and a member of a church persuaded a hotel in a neighboring town to let his fellow parishioners bathe there for a minimal fee. Others heat bottled water in pots on their stoves, dumping it over their heads or using it for sponge baths.

Those who have not found an alternative to bathing with Flint water are limiting their use of it — dashing into and out of the shower once a week with their mouths tightly shut. Others wash only with baby wipes — or, if they can, wait to bathe at the homes of friends or relatives outside Flint.

Many said they mourned the loss of the long, hot showers of their past.

“You wonder what you’re stepping into when you’re getting into the shower and just trying to make it as quick as possible,” said the Rev. Rigel J. Dawson, pastor of the North Central Church of Christ, where some members have been trying to help others find places outside the city to bathe. “That uncertainty really kind of plays on you after a while; it wears you down.”

The efforts to avoid bathing in Flint are linked to persistent reports of rashes, itchiness and hair loss, despite assurances from government scientists that they have not found evidence that the city’s lead-tainted water is unsafe for bathing.

The complaints are so widespread — and the anxiety is so high — that Dr. Nicole Lurie, an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who is coordinating the federal recovery effort here, said she had asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency to work with the state on investigating whether the water quality was contributing to skin problems.

The city began using the Flint River as its water supply in April 2014 to save money, but it failed to add chemicals to prevent pipe corrosion, causing lead to leach into the water system. The investigation is focused only on rashes that have developed or worsened since Flint switched back to using Detroit water in October, because scientists “can only test the water that’s there now,” said Dr. Jevon McFadden, a medical epidemiologist for the CDC.

While the level of contamination in Flint’s water is declining, the lead levels remain dangerous. But federal and state officials have repeatedly said residents cannot get lead poisoning from bathing in lead-laced water unless they ingest it.

The scientists’ investigation involves extensively interviewing people with rashes, testing the water in their homes and referring them to local dermatologists, who are seeing them at no charge. McFadden said the investigation was looking for potential irritants in the water, including more than 20 heavy metals, a range of organic compounds, and byproducts of chlorine and other disinfectants.

So far the investigation has not turned up an obvious culprit, he said, though he added, “We are still very early in the process of pulling together data.”

As of Tuesday, investigators had talked to 538 people who complained of rashes or other skin problems. Of those, 388 qualified for the study because they had an active rash that appeared after the city switched back to Detroit water.

Strikingly, more than 80 percent reported changing their bathing habits substantially because of the water crisis, McFadden said.

“We may not have identified a cause yet,” he said, “but we certainly know this is a real challenge for the people of Flint, and we want to do everything we possibly can to try to get to the bottom of it.”

Dr. Walter Barkey, who is among four local dermatologists evaluating rashes as part of the investigation, said that about 70 percent of the people they had examined appeared to have eczematous dermatitis, a broad category of rash that may be caused by irritants or allergens.

Some people are genetically predisposed to the condition, Barkey said, and it is often exacerbated by cold, dry weather and stress, both of which have been in abundance in Flint for the last six months. In general, he said, the spectrum of rashes seen by the volunteer team of dermatologists was similar to what it had seen in patients not exposed to Flint water.

“Add to that people changing their personal bathing habits, and it’s a perfect storm for the situation we are in, basically,” Barkey said. “But a lot of these people have a history that correlates with the water. They are definitely mistrustful of everything, and I don’t blame them.”

McFadden said the investigators hoped to have some preliminary findings on the rashes by the end of this month.

Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor who helped identify and expose Flint’s lead problem, said that while he believed that Flint residents “should have no more concerns about taking a bath or shower at present than anyone in any other city,” he would not blame anyone for refusing to believe it.

“Some of those people are probably never going to take a bath or shower again without some level of fear,” he said, “given their experience.”

Marla Garland said she started to worry about the safety of the water this year when she felt an unpleasant tingly sensation during her weekly showers and itched ferociously afterward. She stopped bathing at home last month and joined a YMCA in Flushing, a town bordering Flint, so she could shower in peace.

“It was like fire ants biting me,” Garland, 42, said, describing how she felt after bathing at home. “I scratched so hard I had bruises on my arms and legs.”

“Some people still say, ‘Are you sure it’s not psychosomatic?’” Garland added, tears welling in her eyes. “When you can’t shower and you’ve got to find somewhere to go and your car’s not working and you’re thinking, ‘I can’t sell this house,’ it all adds up, and it’s very frustrating.”

Tracey McCloud-Atkins, a dental assistant, lined up at a local church last month to get a coveted handout: a Pump-N-Spray device. Members of Servants Without Borders, a charitable group based in Washington, traveled to Flint to give out more than 200 of the portable showers. A spokeswoman for the group said it had received requests for 450 more and would return next month if it could raise enough money to buy them.

Once a month, Darline Long and her husband, Charles, splurge on a hotel room outside Flint, where they and their daughter, Wendy, 36, who has cerebral palsy, soak in long baths and showers. At home, Long has been warming pots of water on the stove and pouring them over Wendy as she sits in a chair in their bathtub. All of the family members have had rough, itchy skin for more than a year, she said, which they are treating with hydrocortisone cream. Long said she was also losing her hair, a problem she is convinced is caused by the water.

When they can bathe at a hotel, Long said, “I feel clean — I feel really, totally free from being afraid of lead water.”

For Wendy, who has always loved baths, the hotel visits — including one at a Super 8 in neighboring Burton on Saturday — are particularly therapeutic, Long said.

“She was laughing and clapping her hands when she got in the water,” Long said. “She slept a whole lot better that night.”