2015 Michigan Children Lead Testing: Mason County Wins a Tarnished Silver Medal Again

[XLFD]

With most folks from Ludington finding themselves having to worry about the air quality in their neighborhood, the earlier problems with Lead levels in our children's blood has been further down the list of our health priorities.  But the latest figures for 2015 are in, and they follow the pattern of the last two years.  Mason County has the second worst incidences of elevated blood levels in kids for counties in Michigan for the second year in a row, falling behind Lenawee County both times.

As you may recall, in 2013 Mason County was by far the worst county in Michigan for elevated blood levels (EBL) in our kids.  You may think that lead in the drinking water in Flint was a crisis, but considering Ludington and our county in general, it is much worse here as a proportion of the population.  The likely culprit is the drinking water, since many counties with older buildings than us often have little incidences of EBL; our officials would love for us to believe it's a lead paint issue.

But Ludington City Manager John Shay, who manages the Ludington Water Treatment Plant (WTP), has told us that the drinking water has no lead in it.  Zero, Nada.  But that was an outright lie.  How long are you willing to trust someone who would lie to you about lead levels in the drinking water, while he keeps you out of the loop as to how they are fixing a problem where our citizens are besieged each day with hydrogen sulfide smells miles away from the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP)?  Here are the stats and links to the state data:

The state records show Mason County being a statistical outlier on the high side of blood-lead elevation in state rankings of 2013, with Ludington at 12.7% (Scottville at 10.3%):

Lead level rank      County           Kids Tested           Percentage with elevated blood lead levels  

1                           Mason              362                          11.0

2                           Keweenaw        28                            7.1

3                           Crawford          87                            6.9

4                           Jackson            2965                         6.4

5                           Manistee          248                            6.0

47                         Genesee (Flint) 7067                          2.2

The 2014 Childhood Lead Stats had both Ludington and Scottville finishing higher than the county average at 6.6% and 7.6% respectively. 

Lead level rank      County           Kids Tested           Percentage with elevated blood lead levels

1                            Lenawee          1196                     10.2

2                            Mason               414                        6.5

3                            Muskegon          2572                      6.1

3 (tie)                    Menominee         261                       6.1

5                            Barry                  491                       4.7

27                          Genesee(Flint)   6824                       2.6

Just released, the 2015 Provisional Childhood Lead Stats has the 363 kids in both Ludington and Scottville zip codes having a 6.6 % rate, slightly higher than the county average

Lead level rank      County           Kids Tested           Percentage with elevated blood lead levels

1                           Lenawee            1042                     10.0

2                           Mason                  447                       6.5

3                           Kent                   9784                      6.2

4                           Jackson               2943                      5.2

5                           Menominee           254                       5.1

32                         Genesee (Flint)    6979                       2.3

How do you look at those statistics without making some sort of causal link to a city manager who lies about solid facts on our drinking water and who has allowed the city to go five years without a renewed discharged permit, while unlawfully funneling public money through our city attorney to avoid public scrutiny to try to allegedly find a solution?  Please tell me if you can't, because I can't help but do so.

[Willy]

What needs to determined is how many children with elevated lead are drinking City water and are their service pipes made of lead? Where do these children live? Newer housing or older housing? Lead testing of the soil around their homes should be conducted to see if high levels of lead are present. If housing does not have lead service lines then inspection of soldered piping should be done. It needs to be determined exactly where lead contamination is coming from and until that happens we are only guessing as to it's causes. 

[XLFD]

Those are good proactive steps, but are any of them being taken?  No, because our city management team is too busy trying to pass the storyline that everything is OK here, continue your touristing (especially) and enjoy living in the paradise they created.  The Health Department or someone has to step up and find out the cause(s). 

There are privacy issues involved, but I would hope that the majority of those folks with children who have tested positive for high lead would not mind finding out where it came from.  I know one myself, and it's driving them bonkers trying to figure out how their infant got so much lead in their system.  They have lived in a newer house, with no lead or copper piping in their system on a property lot with no prior homes for lead paint issues.  This case and the higher incidences of lead in the two main cities of Mason County, make me suspicious of the municipal drinking water and their aged conduits, and if I get on the city council I will make inquiry into this issue

[jfc123]

Ya know, Mr X, if this city did not have you as an advocate, what do you think they would be living in and how they would be treated? It takes thick skinned people like you and I to stand up and make  these city officals be on the up and up. More help would be appreciated though, strength is in numbers!

[XLFD]

Our skin is fortified and amalgamated with lead, zinc and other metals in our immediate environment, so it better be thick.  I know that I'm fighting the good fight for myself, my family, my city, and my fellow Ludington citizens (the ones who are not part of the ingrained problem), so I don't give a hoot how city hall or the complicit COLDNews depict me.