The US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. posted photos on May 11 of himself and his grandchildren swimming in Rock Creek in Washington, D.C., which is unsafe due to the severe pollution of the water body.
This is reported by The New York Times.
In one photo, the official is swimming, completely submerged in water. In the text of the publication, Kennedy talked about a family walk on Motherʼs Day in Dumbarton Oaks Park. In the photos, the ministerʼs grandchildren are also playing in the stream, which serves as a sewage channel.
Dumbarton Oaks is located downstream of Piney Branch, a tributary of Rock Creek. It receives about 40 million gallons of untreated sewage and stormwater each year. Rock Creek has been found to have significant fecal contamination and high levels of bacteria, including E. coli. As a result, Washington authorities have banned swimming in all county bodies for over 50 years.
Experts warn that any contact with the water in Rock Creek — even wading — is dangerous to the health of not only people but also animals.
As the NYT writes, as a teenager in the 1970s, Robert Kennedy Jr. gained a reputation as a reckless adventurer. He ate wild meat and risked infections during trips to South America and on safari in Africa. The head of the US Department of Health also claimed that a parasitic worm "crawled into his brain, ate part of it, and then died".
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