Detroit

Grocery stores and fast-food restaurants in Flint and Detroit, only part of food disparities puzzle

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To illustrate the jigsaw puzzle that explains health and food disparities in low-income communities, comparisons between two low-income communities, Flint and Detroit, reveal a lack of grocery stores with affordable prices and the abundance of fast-food restaurant are key challenges linked to adverse health issues such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. “It basically confirmed that there’s a lot of junk food on kids’ menus in poorer neighborhoods of urban areas,” said Rick Sadler, assistant professor in MSU’s College of Human Medicine’s Division of Public Health — Flint campus, who co-authored in 2018 a study on how students who attend schools in urban areas with high levels of socioeconomic distress consume foods with low levels of nutritional value such as fast-food. 

Fast-food frequency in Detroit

“The number of fast food restaurants are too many to count, but I would say more than 10,” said Detroit resident Darion Jackson. “It’s harder to find healthier options when all you’re surrounded with is fast food.”

This video recorded while driving through Detroit shows fast-food restaurants dominated city blocks. Kenneth Matthews, a Detroit resident, agrees with Jackson on the increasing number of fast food restaurant in the city. Systemic racism

Sadler credits systemic racism as the root cause for food disparities.

Environment

Elevated levels of lead in adults unnoticed

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By RAY WILBUR
Capital News Service
LANSING —  While the Flint water crisis brought national attention to children exposed to lead, a larger group of adults and children with elevated lead levels is mostly ignored, officials say.  
Young children whose parents have elevated blood lead levels are a high-risk group, health experts say. In Michigan, 34 percent of children under 6 with parents who have elevated lead levels also have elevated levels, according to a 2014 report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The lead comes home on the shoes and clothes of the parents who pick it up at work. “The percentage of children in this group is much higher than in Flint,” said  Ken Rosenman, chief of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Michigan State University.

Arts & Entertainment

Flint through different lenses

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By DAVID POULSON
Capital News Service
LANSING — I got to know Scott Atkinson in a Land Rover rattling through the Australian Outback. That was in 2004 when he was a student in my study abroad class.  I figured him for Hemingway-like aspirations. Within days of our arrival, he bought a kangaroo-hide hat that rocked an Indiana Jones vibe. He wrote about our Aboriginal guide, a man who sought his ancient roots – connections that had been severed by a government policy that produced what is now called Australia’s Stolen Generation.

Environment

Untapped: When your only potable water comes in a bottle

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By AMANDA PROSCIA
Capital News Service
FLINT — The view from the driveway is surprisingly normal: there is snow on the ground, the neighbors’ children are playing basketball in the street and the landscaping is meticulously manicured. Inside, family pictures adorn the walls, a television hangs above the fireplace and several houseplants complement the décor. This house could be any suburban home in the country. Except…various-sized water bottles fill drawers and cover countertops, and cases of bottled water are stacked in the mudroom. This is the home of Angel and Edeline Garcia, residents of Flint for the past 15 years and now victims of that city’s water crisis.

Environment

Policies, social realities may be behind water, air disasters

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By COURTNEY BOURGOIN
Capital News Service
LANSING — It started with a blame game among government officials. Now, many people want to know whether the Flint water crisis was fueled by racism and classism. And according to environmental justice experts, these social drivers of environmental disasters are more than a Flint problem. They’re Michigan’s reality. While Flint suffered the consequences of corroding pipes and lead poisoning, Detroit residents are concerned about severe air quality issues in the city.

Environment

If Flint water is unsafe, what about yours?

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By JASMINE WATTS
Capital News Service
LANSING – While Flint struggles with lead in its water, other aging Michigan communities also have water lines made of the health-threatening metal. The National Drinking Water Advisory Council said in 2014 that there is no safe level of lead. It’s a costly problem to address. An American Water Works Association report, “Buried No Longer,” said the nation needs to replace aging pipelines that may contain lead or may leak. Over a 25-year span, “Buried No Longer” estimates that the country’s new drinking infrastructure will cost $1 trillion.

Government

Voters have spoken, but police have final say

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By LAUREN GIBBONS
Capital News Service
LANSING — Supporters of marijuana decriminalization proposals passed in five Michigan cities say the move is a symbolic step towards better regulation, but residents still might want to wait before lighting up, according to law enforcement officials. Ballot proposals expanding legal marijuana use beyond current state and federal law earned voter approval by wide margins Nov. 6 in Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Ypsilanti. Voters in Detroit and Flint supported decriminalization of less than one ounce of marijuana for those older than 21 and 19, respectively. Grand Rapids voted to make marijuana possession a civil infraction, Ypsilanti determined marijuana possession to be the city’s “lowest police priority,” and Kalamazoo received voter authorization to construct up to three medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits.