Top 10 wealthiest countries in the world in 2018

[Hamartia Antidote]

no more sights like this

https://www.statista.com/statistics...of-clothes-dryers-by-energy-source-in-the-us/

Distribution of households with clothes dryers in the U.S. in 2009, by energy source (in millions)

As of 2009, almost 80 percent of U.S. households had a clothes dryer.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Washing dishes by hand for most Americans is a thing of the past

https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/were-still-waiting-on-the-dishwasher-utopia-1496632923/amp

Today, roughly 75 percent of American households have a dishwasher.

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

The unethical sanctions of america also has an increasing number of crumpling infrastructures:

slumdog americans feeling more and more like home!

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

US infrastructure is falling apart — here's a look at how terrible things have become
Cadie Thompson

Jun. 16, 2017, 11:15 AM

An aerial view of the damaged Oroville Dam spillway is shown. Dams in the US are aging. In fact, the average age of of US dams is 56 years.
Dale Kolke / California Department of Water Resources via Reuters

America's infrastructure is in dire need of repairs.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2017Infrastructure Report Card, which is published every four years, US infrastructure gets a D+ grade. It got the same grade in 2013.

The ASCE estimates the US needs to spend some $4.5 trillion by 2025 to improve the state of the country's roads, bridges, dams, airports, schools, and more.

The report breaks down the state of infrastructure in 16 different categories. Here's a look at each category's final grade, according to the organization.


Aviation: D

Airports face a $42 billion funding gap between 2016 and 2025, according to the ASCE.
Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Airports and air traffic control systems are in serious need of an update, the report found.

With some two million people per day coming through US airports, congestion is becoming a major problem. In fact, the reportestimates that 24 out of the top 30 airports in the US could soon hit "Thanksgiving-peak traffic volume" one day a week.

Bridges: C+

There are about 56,000 structurally deficient bridges in the US, according to the latest data from the Federal Highway Administration.
Matt Rourke/AP Photo
US bridges are aging.

Out of the 614,387 bridges in the US, more than 200,000 are more than 50 years old.

The report estimates it would cost some $123 billion just to fix the bridges in the US.

Dams: D

Officials inspect Oroville Dam's crippled spillway Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, in Oroville, Calif.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo
According to the report, there were some 15,500 high-hazard dams in the US in 2016.

Drinking Water: D

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power crews work to repair a juncture of a water main which ruptured near the University of California, Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard. The pipe was 93 years old.
Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo
The pipes that carry America's drinking water are in critical need of attention.

According to the report, many of the one million pipes have been in use for almost 100 years. The aging system makes water breaks more prevalent, which means there are about two trillion gallons of treated water lost each year.

Energy: D+

Most power lines in the US were built in the 1950's and 1960's.
shes_so_high/Flickr
Power interruptions could become more common if more attention isn't given to the US energy system, according to the report.

The majority of the transmission and distribution lines were built in the mid-20th century and have a life expectancy of about 50 years, meaning that they are already outdated.

Between 2016 to 2025, there's an investment gap of about $177 billion for infrastructure that supports electricity, like power plants and power lines.

Hazardous Waste: D+

About 22 million acres of land are used for hazardous waste programs.
Susan Montoya Bryan/ AP Photo
The report describes the US infrastructure for hazardous waste as "generally adequate," however, it states that more than half of the US population lives within three miles of one of these waste sites.


Inland Waterways: D

A barge travels down the Mississippi River. There are some 25,000 miles of inland waterways used for transport in the US.
Shutterstock.com
Inland waterways help transport goods to different parts of the country. But the infrastructure that supports these waterways, like dams and locks, are getting old and causing delays.

In fact, about 50% of vessels using these waterways experience delays, according to the report.

Levees: D

A worker walks across a levee near the Cedar River, Monday, Sept. 26, 2016, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo
Levees play a critical role in protecting communities from flood waters, but they aren't currently getting the attention they need.

During the next 10 years, there's a need for $80 billion to improve these structures, according to the report.


Parks and Recreation: D+

National parks in the US are in need of billions of dollars for repairs.
Thomson Reuters
The infrastructure that supports local parks and national parks needs improvement.

Roads, bridges, parking areas, trails, and campsites are just a few of the things that need repairs in our nation's parks.

The National Park Service even estimates that it reached $11.9 billion in deferred maintenance costs in 2015, according to thereport.

Ports: C+

There are 926 ports in the US. These ports are responsible for almost $5 trillion in economic activity, according to the ASCE.
David J. Phillip/AP Photo
Most overseas trade comes through US ports. And while our ports have a higher grade than most other infrastructure categories, there's still room for improvement.

For example, as ships get bigger, ports will need to make deeper navigation channels. Also, as congestion in ports increases, the freight network that takes shipments to and from ports needs to be improved so that goods are transferred more efficiently with fewer delays.


Rail: B

More than $25 billion is needed to repair and grow the railway system in the US.
Getty Images/Tim Boyle
While freight railroads are in relatively good shape, passenger rail could use some upgrades, especially in the Northeast Corridor.

According to the report, the average age of Amtrak's backlogged projects in the Northeast Corridor is 111 years old. This includes bridges, tunnels, and a viaduct.

Roads: D

Crumbling roads cost Americans about $160 billion in wasted fuel in 2014, according to the report.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Roads in the US are in bad shape.

About 32% of urban roads and 14% of rural roads are in poor condition.

In fact, there's a $836 billion backlog of unmet capital needed to fix the highways and bridges in the US, according to a report by the US Department of Transportation.


Schools: D+

Public schools don't have the money they need to maintain their buildings.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Schools in the US are not getting the funding they need to maintain public school buildings.

About 24% of these buildings are in fair or poor condition, according to the report.

Solid Waste: C+

Americans generated some 258 million tons of waste in 2014.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
While municipal solid waste systems are mostly in fair condition, the ASCE recommends increased promotion of developing better systems for recycling.


Transit: D-

According to the ASCE, only 51% of US households can travel to a grocery store in their area by using public transportation.
Flickr / MTAPhotos
Public transit is being used more and more, but it remains severely underfunded.

According to the report, it would cost about $90 billion to fix the backlog of transit system projects and that cost is estimated to grow to $122 billion by 2032.

Wastewater: D+

The demand for more water treatment plants is expected to grow nu 23% over the next 15 years.
Wikimedia Commons
Currently, there are about 15,000 wastewater treatment plants in the US, but it's estimated we will need 532 new systems by 2032, which means we need to be investing more in wastewater infrastructure now.

The US needs to invest about $271 billion in the US wastewater
infrastructure over the next 25 years, according to the report.

https://www.businessinsider.com/asce-gives-us-infrastructure-a-d-2017-6

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Ah..the Chinese troll forgets about his own country’s problems before posting about others...

This isn’t the US:

Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai

Chinese anger over alleged cover-up of high-speed rail crash
ministry buried the derailed carriages to hide evidence and bodies.

China investigates as truckloads of dead deformed pigs are dumped in rivers that supply drinking water

In China, the water you drink is as dangerous as the air you breathe

22 dead after road bridge collapses in China

Look At All The Major Chinese Bridges That Have Collapsed In Recent Years

Made in China: Motorway collapses 10 months after it's built…

Chinese woman trapped for a month in an elevator starves to death

Chinese University Dorm FALLING APART, Officials Fix it With DUCT TAPE

Escalator "eats" a young woman alive

Four people electrocuted to death after heavy rains submerge Guangdong streets

Floods in China kill almost 130, wipe out crops

China floods: 21,000 evacuated after levee breaks in central China

Monster and massive flood in China 7/25/2016

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...vil-engineers-report-card-again-idUSKBN16G21I

U.S.
MARCH 10, 2017 / 12:03 AM / 2 YEARS AGO
U.S. infrastructure gets D-plus grade in civil engineers' report card, again

Ian Simpson, Luciana Lopez
4 MIN READ

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. infrastructure was given a near-failing grade of D-plus by an engineering association on Thursday, a repeat of a rating that could give momentum to President Donald Trump’s vow of a $1 trillion investment to rebuild everything from roads to dams.

FILE PHOTO: Aaron LaRocca, Chief of Staff of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, looks at a trunnion post that needs replacement under the draw span on the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC, U.S. on June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo


The D+ grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) is unchanged from its last report card in 2013, suggesting that only minor progress had been made in improving public works.

The ASCE estimated in a statement that the United States needed to invest $4.59 trillion by 2025 to bring its infrastructure to an adequate B- grade, a figure about $2 trillion higher than current funding levels.

“To see real progress, we need to make long-term infrastructure investment a priority,” said Greg DiLoreto, chair of the ASCE’s Committee on America’s Infrastructure, which prepared the report.

In its report card, the ASCE said substandard infrastructure was costing each American family as much as $3,400 in disposable income a year. It also noted that “after years of decline, traffic fatalities increased by 7 percent from 2014 to 2015, with 35,092 people dying on America’s roads.”

America’s water systems are leaking trillions of gallons of drinking water and more than 2,000 dams are at high risk of failure, the report said.

The ASCE’s report could fuel the growing debate over infrastructure spending in Washington. In an address to Congress last week Trump said he would lawmakers to pass legislation that would produce $1 trillion in infrastructure investment and millions of new jobs.

Trump, a Republican and New York real estate developer, met on Wednesday with business leaders to discuss infrastructure plans.


Trump has not provided details but he has talked about a tax credit to encourage private sector investment. State governors have sent Trump a list of 428 projects they would like funded under a public works plan.

An analysis by the Brookings Institution think tank last month said spending on public works could make the economy more efficient and spur lagging productivity growth, a key factor in boosting Americans’ standard of living.

Citing Commerce Department data, Brookings said that yearly government investment in public works had fallen by almost two-thirds in terms of its share of the economy from 1980 to 2015.

The ASCE gave the nation’s dams a D grade, and said problems go beyond California's 49-year-old Oroville Dam, where nearly 200,000 people were evacuated last month after drainage channels for the dam were damaged by heavy rainfall. (here

“The average age of the 90,580 dams in the country is 56 years,” the report noted, adding that “the number of deficient high-hazard potential dams has also climbed to an estimated 2,170 or more.”

In the ASCE’s A-to-F grading of 16 infrastructure categories, with A the top grade, seven areas showed progress and three declined.

The highest grade - B - went to rail, up from C+ in 2013. The report said significant spending, including $27.1 billion in 2015, was a major factor in the improvement.

The lowest grade was D- for transit, down from D four years ago. Chronically underfunded rail and bus systems face a $90 billion rebuilding backlog, the ASCE said.


The drinking water system also ranked a D, the same as 2013. Water main breaks waste more 2 trillion gallons of treated drinking water per year, and “legacy and emerging contaminants” need monitoring. Pipes laid in the start or middle of the last century are pushing the limits of expected 75- to 100-year lifespans.

Lead in the water of Flint, Michigan, has attracted widespread notice, but a Reuters investigation last year found that the city was by no means alone, with some cities registering even higher levels of the poison. (here)

Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and James Dalgleish

 

[Super Falcon]

These are fake german are above uk and how india is rich country where common man cant even have money to buikd toilets at home

 

[gambit]

Looks like the Chinese are getting jealous.

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

Looks like the Chinese are getting jealous.

Despite all the above damaging structures, the refugees/ immigrants from vietnam and filthy india are still in elation over the collapsing infrastructures. Strong sense of feeling like their homes!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Despite all the above damaging structures, the refugees/ immigrants from vietnam and inhygienic india are still in elation over the collapsing infrastructures. Strong sense of feeling like their homes!

We know all you asian countries are unhygienic but that doesn’t have anything to do with the wealth of the US. If you have a problem with China being very low on the list you can always join the millions in the Chinese diaspora overseas in the West instead of trolling. Just imagine the simple feeling of drinking water out of the tap that won’t kill you...you’ll be enlightened!

Safe for our children to drink!


Or maybe you can write about the home life of the common man in China here instead of trolling...or are you afraid of the reality..

 

[gambit]

Despite all the above damaging structures, the refugees/ immigrants from vietnam and inhygienic india are still in elation over the collapsing infrastructures. Strong sense of feeling like their homes!

Technologically, the US is older than China, so yes, after time and usage, things are bound to deteriorate. But Americans have no cause to be ashamed of these things. When Americans were traveling from coast to coast in autos using paved roads that spanned the continent, what was your China doing? When Americans were building intercontinental aircrafts, what was your China building? When Americans were sending information over a rudimentary Internet, did your China even have consistent electricity?

Do YOU live in one of these cells...

https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/485475818.jpg

Or do you live in a standalone house with no neighbors stomping on top or noisy kids from below? When was the last time you literally walk out of the door and into grass? Have you played in the snow and breathe crisp mountain air? Do you even know what clean air smells like?

Yeaahh...Buddy, I am far richer than you will ever be.

 

[gambit]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...vil-engineers-report-card-again-idUSKBN16G21I

U.S.
MARCH 10, 2017 / 12:03 AM / 2 YEARS AGO
U.S. infrastructure gets D-plus grade in civil engineers' report card, again

When you read stuff like this, you should actually be envious of US. You guys get on here telling everyone how naturally smart are the Chinese with the 'high IQ' and so on, but the reality is that you guys absolutely sucks at critical thinking and that was proven yr after yr.

Let us take one thing -- roads -- for now. Does not matter if the road is a simple street or a highway or an interstate. Why would any road be worn out and broken up? Because of USAGE, buddy. Not only that, it is used for every reason from commerce to pleasure. When US paved roads were being beaten up by heavy trucks, China's dirt roads were barely used by farmers carrying their veggies to the markets. We abused our infrastructures because we had to when you had -- nothing or next to nothing.

See this thing...???

https://www.airstream.com/travel-trailers/classic/

In your China TODAY, this would be a dream house for your parents, pal. And yet 50 yrs ago, Americans were beating up on our infrastructures going continental on these things while Chinese under Mao were living in hovels, barely know that there is a world outside their villages.

Our infrastructures got so abused that sometimes we even landed planes on them...

But of course, what the hell would YOU know about living in a country so wealthy that regular guys can land their airplanes on the roads? You think that smiling gent in the picture above give a shit how much the market estimate the value of a Hong Kong or Shanghai apartment? For him, YOU live in a 2D world while he lives in 3D. You can only go x-y while he can go x-y-z whenever he feels like it. That is the kind of national wealth your grandparents, parents, you, and your children will NEVER understand, no matter how many pictures of damaged bridges and roads you can find in the US.

Am not going to even get into villages where residents have their own airplanes and runways.

So yeah...Americans have no need to be ashamed of our damaged infrastructures. They can be repaired and our lives will continues to be better than yours.

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

We know all you asian countries are unhygienic but that doesn’t have anything to do with the wealth of the US. If you have a problem with China being very low on the list you can always join the millions in the Chinese diaspora overseas in the West instead of trolling. Just imagine the simple feeling of drinking water out of the tap that won’t kill you...you’ll be enlightened!

View attachment 562519
Safe for our children to drink!


Or maybe you can write about the home life of the common man in China here instead of trolling...or are you afraid of the reality..

Read my above post #19 and 21 mega-trolling slumdog:

Your water is clean? YUCK！

"The drinking water system also ranked a D, the same as 2013. Water main breaks waste more 2 trillion gallons of treated drinking water per year, and “legacy and emerging contaminants” need monitoring. Pipes laid in the start or middle of the last century are pushing the limits of expected 75- to 100-year lifespans."

Cant change yourself on a deep-rooted indian-like mindset.

We didnt brag about and around we *Chinese") are perfect in everything. It was YOU (an adopted american civilian from south asia) who are trolling despite of all the unsightly and dangerous and lethal infrastructures
that have been in existence in your country for many years!

Childhood Lead Exposure in Michigan: It’s Not Just Flint
Abbey Frazier
— Thu, 02/22/2018 - 11:26am

The risks of childhood lead exposure and poisoning were inadvertently brought into the spotlight through the Flint water crisis. But the issue in Michigan extends far beyond that city's limits.

Last November, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released provisional 2016 data on childhood lead testing showing that the rate of elevated lead levels in Michigan children under six years old increased for the first time since 1998. Despite declines in lead exposure for children in Flint, the slight uptick from 3.4 to 3.6 percent was mostly driven by increases in other Michigan cities like Grand Rapids and Detroit.

High rates of lead poisoning in counties across the southern and western regions of the state are shown in the above map. One particular zip code in Grand Rapids saw more children poisoned by lead in 2016 than during the entirety of the Flint Water Crisis, and Detroit saw a 28 percent spike in the number of children poisoned by lead.

Instead of originating from a polluted water supply like in Flint, lead poisoning in children across Michigan is mostly caused by lead-based paint and dust in older homes, a particular problem for children in low-income neighborhoods.

The map above displays the percent of Michigan children younger than six years old with elevated blood lead levels, greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter by county in 2016.

Lead exposure in young children is strongly associated with developmental delays, problems with brain functioning, aggressive or violent behavior later in life and adverse educational outcomes. Those who have experienced lead poisoning as children have been found to be seven times more likely to drop out from high school.

Some of the rise in elevated lead levels can be attributed to more aggressive screenings in the wake of the Flint water crisis, though the rate of increase is greater than that of increased testing. Even with increased screenings, only around 20 percent of Michigan children under six years old were screened for elevated levels of lead in 2016, suggesting that the full scale of the problem may still be unknown.

In addition to Grand Rapids and Detroit, other cities with high rates of elevated lead levels include Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Jackson, and Muskegon. While 1.8 percent of children in Flint’s Genesee County were found to have high levels of lead in their blood, that compares to 7.6 percent in Jackson County, 6.7 percent in Kent County, and 8.8 percent in Detroit.

Areas in Detroit were found to have some of the highest rates of child lead poisoning in the state. Of the 17 zip codes in Michigan where more than 10 percent of children tested positive for lead poisoning, 10 were in Detroit. In the Detroit zip code 48206, more than 22 percent of children tested were found to have elevated lead levels in their blood. The chart below represents the Michigan ZIP codes with the worst lead poisoning levels.

Due to lead residue trapped in soil, there has also been some evidence of a link between housing demolitions in Detroit and lead poisoning in children living nearby. To address the issue the City of Detroit Health Department created a task force charged with developing recommendations to reduce exposure, including improving transparency and communication with residents, expanding the notifying area, and providing vouchers to families with young children to allow for temporary relocation.

Kent County created their own task force to address high lead levels in Grand Rapids children, recently releasing a list of recommendations aimed at reducing childhood exposure. The Grand Rapids zip code 49507 was among the highest in the state with 15.3 percent of children testing positive for elevated levels of lead in their blood. The Kent County task force’s recommendations aim to increase awareness and information through public education, better evaluate the problem using policy initiatives, reduce risk by identifying and eliminating causes, and expand testing and treatment efforts in health care. Other local efforts include Healthy Homes Initiatives like the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, ClearCorps/Detroit, and Lead Safe Lansing.

In 2016, the Governor created by executive order the Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board to address childhood lead exposure in Michigan. The commission released more than 100 recommendations in late 2016 covering five key areas: testing, case management and monitoring, environmental investigations, remediation and abatement, and dashboards and reporting. The report called for universal testing of children between 9 and 12 months and again around 2 years, and a uniform, statewide database to track and monitor efforts across the state. The recommendations were never taken up by the legislature.

State officials have also received permission to use federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding to expand lead abatement efforts in Flint and across the state, which will amount to $24 million per year over the next five years. The focus of these efforts will include the removal of lead based paint, home fixtures containing lead such as water service lines, and lead-contaminated soil in Flint and other high-risk communities across the state.

Though child lead exposure in Flint was a unique case resulting from a man-made environmental disaster, the tragedy brought to light existing problems with childhood lead poisoning in areas beyond Flint. Before the Flint Water Crisis occurred, Michigan was ranked the fifth worst state in the nation by the CDC for childhood lead poisoning, and it has been estimated by the Ecology Center that in 2014 child lead poisoning cost the state at least $270 million per year in increased health, criminal justice, special education costs and lost labor force productivity. Aggressive and sustained efforts to combat child lead exposure will be a critical piece to ensuring that all Michigan children, particularly those in high-risk neighborhoods and communities, have a chance to succeed without the threat to their safety of the irreversible and long-term damage caused by lead poisoning.

Abbey Frazier is a graduate policy fellow at the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research.

https://ippsr.msu.edu/public-policy...od-lead-exposure-michigan-it’s-not-just-flint

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

When you read stuff like this, you should actually be envious of US. You guys get on here telling everyone how naturally smart are the Chinese with the 'high IQ' and so on, but the reality is that you guys absolutely sucks at critical thinking and that was proven yr after yr.

Let us take one thing -- roads -- for now. Does not matter if the road is a simple street or a highway or an interstate. Why would any road be worn out and broken up? Because of USAGE, buddy. Not only that, it is used for every reason from commerce to pleasure. When US paved roads were being beaten up by heavy trucks, China's dirt roads were barely used by farmers carrying their veggies to the markets. We abused our infrastructures because we had to when you had -- nothing or next to nothing.

See this thing...???

https://www.airstream.com/travel-trailers/classic/

In your China TODAY, this would be a dream house for your parents, pal. And yet 50 yrs ago, Americans were beating up on our infrastructures going continental on these things while Chinese under Mao were living in hovels, barely know that there is a world outside their villages.

Our infrastructures got so abused that sometimes we even landed planes on them...

But of course, what the hell would YOU know about living in a country so wealthy that regular guys can land their airplanes on the roads? You think that smiling gent in the picture above give a shit how much the market estimate the value of a Hong Kong or Shanghai apartment? For him, YOU live in a 2D world while he lives in 3D. You can only go x-y while he can go x-y-z whenever he feels like it. That is the kind of national wealth your grandparents, parents, you, and your children will NEVER understand, no matter how many pictures of damaged bridges and roads you can find in the US.

Am not going to even get into villages where residents have their own airplanes and runways.

So yeah...Americans have no need to be ashamed of our damaged infrastructures. They can be repaired and our lives will continues to be better than yours.

You cant even know how to think straight like a person with normal IQ
Why should we be envious of you?
We are progressing really well on all fronts.
Especially us, Chinese living in HK and most of our coastal cities on the Mainland alone are having first class infrastructures.

Most of our road (esp those built on strategic locations can withstand the weights of heaviest military equipment, let alone you mickymouse one seater glider)!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Read my above post #19 and 21 mega-trolling slumdog:

Your water is clean? YUCK！

"The drinking water system also ranked a D, the same as 2013. Water main breaks waste more 2 trillion gallons of treated drinking water per year, and “legacy and emerging contaminants” need monitoring. Pipes laid in the start or middle of the last century are pushing the limits of expected 75- to 100-year lifespans."

Cant change yourself on a deep-rooted indian-like mindset.

We didnt brag about and around we *Chinese") are perfect in everything. It was YOU (an adopted american civilian from south asia) who are trolling despite of all the unsightly and dangerous and lethal infrastructures
that have been in existence in your country for many years!

Childhood Lead Exposure in Michigan: It’s Not Just Flint
Abbey Frazier
— Thu, 02/22/2018 - 11:26am

The risks of childhood lead exposure and poisoning were inadvertently brought into the spotlight through the Flint water crisis. But the issue in Michigan extends far beyond that city's limits.

Last November, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released provisional 2016 data on childhood lead testing showing that the rate of elevated lead levels in Michigan children under six years old increased for the first time since 1998. Despite declines in lead exposure for children in Flint, the slight uptick from 3.4 to 3.6 percent was mostly driven by increases in other Michigan cities like Grand Rapids and Detroit.

High rates of lead poisoning in counties across the southern and western regions of the state are shown in the above map. One particular zip code in Grand Rapids saw more children poisoned by lead in 2016 than during the entirety of the Flint Water Crisis, and Detroit saw a 28 percent spike in the number of children poisoned by lead.

Instead of originating from a polluted water supply like in Flint, lead poisoning in children across Michigan is mostly caused by lead-based paint and dust in older homes, a particular problem for children in low-income neighborhoods.

The map above displays the percent of Michigan children younger than six years old with elevated blood lead levels, greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter by county in 2016.

Lead exposure in young children is strongly associated with developmental delays, problems with brain functioning, aggressive or violent behavior later in life and adverse educational outcomes. Those who have experienced lead poisoning as children have been found to be seven times more likely to drop out from high school.

Some of the rise in elevated lead levels can be attributed to more aggressive screenings in the wake of the Flint water crisis, though the rate of increase is greater than that of increased testing. Even with increased screenings, only around 20 percent of Michigan children under six years old were screened for elevated levels of lead in 2016, suggesting that the full scale of the problem may still be unknown.

In addition to Grand Rapids and Detroit, other cities with high rates of elevated lead levels include Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Jackson, and Muskegon. While 1.8 percent of children in Flint’s Genesee County were found to have high levels of lead in their blood, that compares to 7.6 percent in Jackson County, 6.7 percent in Kent County, and 8.8 percent in Detroit.

Areas in Detroit were found to have some of the highest rates of child lead poisoning in the state. Of the 17 zip codes in Michigan where more than 10 percent of children tested positive for lead poisoning, 10 were in Detroit. In the Detroit zip code 48206, more than 22 percent of children tested were found to have elevated lead levels in their blood. The chart below represents the Michigan ZIP codes with the worst lead poisoning levels.

Due to lead residue trapped in soil, there has also been some evidence of a link between housing demolitions in Detroit and lead poisoning in children living nearby. To address the issue the City of Detroit Health Department created a task force charged with developing recommendations to reduce exposure, including improving transparency and communication with residents, expanding the notifying area, and providing vouchers to families with young children to allow for temporary relocation.

Kent County created their own task force to address high lead levels in Grand Rapids children, recently releasing a list of recommendations aimed at reducing childhood exposure. The Grand Rapids zip code 49507 was among the highest in the state with 15.3 percent of children testing positive for elevated levels of lead in their blood. The Kent County task force’s recommendations aim to increase awareness and information through public education, better evaluate the problem using policy initiatives, reduce risk by identifying and eliminating causes, and expand testing and treatment efforts in health care. Other local efforts include Healthy Homes Initiatives like the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, ClearCorps/Detroit, and Lead Safe Lansing.

In 2016, the Governor created by executive order the Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board to address childhood lead exposure in Michigan. The commission released more than 100 recommendations in late 2016 covering five key areas: testing, case management and monitoring, environmental investigations, remediation and abatement, and dashboards and reporting. The report called for universal testing of children between 9 and 12 months and again around 2 years, and a uniform, statewide database to track and monitor efforts across the state. The recommendations were never taken up by the legislature.

State officials have also received permission to use federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding to expand lead abatement efforts in Flint and across the state, which will amount to $24 million per year over the next five years. The focus of these efforts will include the removal of lead based paint, home fixtures containing lead such as water service lines, and lead-contaminated soil in Flint and other high-risk communities across the state.

Though child lead exposure in Flint was a unique case resulting from a man-made environmental disaster, the tragedy brought to light existing problems with childhood lead poisoning in areas beyond Flint. Before the Flint Water Crisis occurred, Michigan was ranked the fifth worst state in the nation by the CDC for childhood lead poisoning, and it has been estimated by the Ecology Center that in 2014 child lead poisoning cost the state at least $270 million per year in increased health, criminal justice, special education costs and lost labor force productivity. Aggressive and sustained efforts to combat child lead exposure will be a critical piece to ensuring that all Michigan children, particularly those in high-risk neighborhoods and communities, have a chance to succeed without the threat to their safety of the irreversible and long-term damage caused by lead poisoning.

Abbey Frazier is a graduate policy fellow at the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research.

https://ippsr.msu.edu/public-policy/michigan-wonk-blog/childhood-lead-exposure-michigan-it’s-not-just-flint

Wow you are one angry Hafu. You do realize you have no clean drinking water standards compared to the US. We may give our water a low mark but it is still drinkable. Yes, some water systems have contamination...but it is well known to foreigners that drinking unfiltered water out of the tap in China is almost suicide.