Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/human-health/page/3/)
Mr. Great Lakes (Jeff Kart) reports from Bay City, Michigan’s Delta College Q-90.1 FM. Mr. Great Lakes, Climate Change, Children’s Health and Mussels by Great Lakes Echo
This week, Kart discusses climate change in the Great Lakes, protecting children’s health and fighting mussels with algae. Text at Mr. Great Lakes
A recent International Joint Commission (IJC) report recommends monitoring chemicals and toxic substances in the fluid and tissues of young children and pregnant women.
The concern is whether contamination left by the Velsicol Chemical Co. in St. Louis, Mich., has longterm health consequences for the county’s residents more than 40 years later.
(IL) Chicago Tribune – Joliet is pushing the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to more than double the concentration of cancer-causing radium it’s allowed to dump onto farmland in the south suburbs, expanding the potential for deadly radon gas in these increasingly urban communities. Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive element abundant in deep-water wells in northern Illinois and throughout the Midwest. Cities such as Joliet that rely on these deep wells spend millions of dollars each year to remove radium from their drinking water. Some communities pay to dump radium in a landfill, but Joliet and others use a cheaper alternative, mixing it with waste material that is sold to farmers as fertilizer. More
(MI) Detroit Free Press – Metro Detroit’s outdated sewage systems regularly violate the law by dumping raw and partially treated human waste into rivers, streams and lakes that provide recreation and drinking water to more than 3 million people, a Free Press analysis of state records found. In the last two years, sewer systems in more than three dozen communities dumped a combined 80 billion gallons of raw and partially treated human waste into waterways. More
(MI) The Detroit News – While I welcome comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed health standards for smog, the arguments in a Detroit News editorial are dangerously misleading (“Policies and priorities: If Obama is to fulfill his job creation pledge, he must consider the impact of every action on employment,” Jan. 12). The editorial suggests that we cannot afford protections from pollution that dangerously impacts children and the elderly; that leads to severe and even fatal respiratory problems; and that costs families in higher medical bills. More
(IN) The Post-Tribune – Mud in the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is so contaminated with a cancer-causing industrial pollutant that it could rank among the most contaminated sites in the nation, researchers say. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to dredge the canal starting in late 2011 to facilitate ship traffic. But researchers aren’t sure whether dredging will be good because it will remove the potentially harmful pollutants, or bad because it will stir them up. The Army Corps says there is little health risk. More
The CDC recommends the following practices to protect swimmers from water-related illnesses:
Don’t swim when you have diarrhea. Shower with soap before swimming and wash your hands after using the toilet or changing diapers. Don’t swallow pool water and avoid getting water in your mouth. If the pool has a strong chlorine smell, it is usually an indication that the water is unhealthy. The smell comes when the chlorine is combined with bodily fluids such as saliva, urine, feces, sweat or body oils.
(IL) Chicago Tribune – Six months after state health officials declared their investigation of cancer rates in south suburban Crestwood was almost complete, they have yet to release the results. The Illinois Department of Public Health, which earlier had failed to notify Crestwood residents their municipal water supply was contaminated with toxic chemicals, declined to answer questions about the cancer study. The agency also has rejected the Tribune’s requests for cancer data filed under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. More
(MI) Battle Creek Enquirer – A comprehensive indoor air quality report released Monday shows that most mold, pollen and debris found in a Calhoun County building meet acceptable levels for employees to breathe. “But you know there is still something in that building making people sick,” Caroline Ross, State Employees United Auto Workers Local 6000 health and safety representative, said Tuesday. More