Lead Poisoning Cases Up 28% In Detroit Children Under 6 In 2016; Testing Up 9.5% Post-Flint
Lead poisoning in Detroit’s children had been declining year-over-year for more than a decade, but jumped nearly 28% in children under six who were tested last year. In fact, the city had 10 ZIP codes where at least 10% of the children tested had blood levels indicating lead contamination, with four of those areas showing 15% to 22% of children with lead poisoning, according to recently released data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Those ZIP codes were: 48206, 48214, 48202, 48204, 48213, 48215, 48238, 48203, 48211 and 48208.
While some of the dramatic increase can be attributed to lead-poisoning fears following the Flint water crisis – and more parents getting their children tested due to concerns about lead – the increase greatly exceeds the larger number of screenings.
“Flint scarred a lot of people, a lot of parents, and they went off and got their kids tested,” said Dr. Lyke Thompson, director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University. “Given that the number of tested kids went up, the number that were identified as lead-poisoned also went up. But the interesting thing is it went up at a much faster rate.”
EDIT
http://www.freep.com/story/news/2017/11/27/which-michigan-communities-had-highest-levels-lead-poisoning-children-2016-not-flint/893448001/