We
reported this story in Al's Morning Meeting a couple of weeks ago. It is picking up steam.
The Detroit News says:
More than a dozen Michigan communities in the Great Lakes basin show higher than normal rates of health problems, according to a federal report that has been withheld over concerns about how it was conducted. The study, conducted by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says there are higher rates of infant mortality, cancer and other health problems in the 25 former hazardous waste sites that still register high levels of contamination.
Thirteen of those areas -- dubbed areas of concern -- are in Michigan. CDC officials cite problems with the methodology of the study, but some scientists who say the study is valid accuse the agency of a cover-up.
"I think it's being held up because it raises some very serious health problems that are hard to deal with. And dealing with them will be very expensive," said David O. Carpenter, a professor of environmental health and technology at the University of Albany in New York who was part of the peer review process on the study.
The Center for Public Integrity has posted draft copies of the still-unreleased report:
