JANUARY IS NATIONAL RADON ACTION MONTH For more information, click here For questions and answers on Radon, click here To link to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for information about Radon, click here

Radon
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated Jackson County as a Tier 1 county for Radon. Click here to see the Michigan Map of Zones for Radon Exposure. Click here to see a map of National EPA Zones for Radon Exposure. This means there is greater probability of Radon occurrence in homes at or above the EPA action level of 4 pico curies/liter in air. Radon is a known carcinogen, and has been shown to be the second leading cause of lung cancer. Testing is simple, inexpensive, and can be done easily by homeowners. All homes should be tested regardless of the age or style of construction. Test kits are available in the Environmental Health office Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. for the purchase price of $11.

In honor of January’s designation as National Radon Action Month, the Environmental Health Division will be selling radon kits for $5 the entire month of January.

2006 Kids Count in Michigan Report released

Click here or on the icon to go directly to the 2006 Kids Count in Michigan Report. Profiles by county are available.

According to the latest Kids Count in Michigan report…..

• About 1 of every 6 children in Jackson live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level in 2005
• The percentage of Jackson’s children participating in the Food Assistance Program has doubled between 2000 and 2005, rising from 10% to 20%. (Families qualify for the Food Assistance Program with an annual income below 130% of the federal poverty level or roughly $20,500 for a single mother with two children.)
• One of three children in Jackson depended on Medicaid for access to health care in 2005---qualifying with income below 150 percent of poverty
• 8.3% of children have no insurance

Other poor indicators are related to maternal and infant health, particularly, the number of low birthweight (LBW) babies. The 1995-97 Jackson County average was 6.9% and the 2002-04 average is 8.2%. This is an 18% change for the worse. Closely correlated with LBW is prematurity which has risen to 10% in recent years. Also, Jackson County still claims a high percentage of pregnant moms receiving less than adequate prenatal care, averaging 39.2% in 1995-97 and 45.7% in 2002-04. Process changes for data collection for vital statistics has improved for 2004 and 2005, as the result of combined efforts with local physicians and hospital staff. This should show improved prenatal care data in the next Kids Count release.

On a positive note, Jackson County’s infant mortality rate improved by 11% between 1997 and 2004 in which the death rate per 1,000 infants decreased from 8.0 to 7.1. Infant mortality data also shows a black/white disparity of two to one.

Teen Pregnancy rates are decreasing
Jackson County has seen a slow and steady decline in teen pregnancy rates over the past ten years or more. In 2005, the teen pregnancy rate for Jackson County for 1,000 women ages 15-19 was 73.2 compared to Michigan’s rate of 52.2. Jackson County currently ranks as the 9 th highest for teen pregnancy rates out of the 83 counties. This reflects a drop from the 2004 ranking of 5 th highest of all Michigan counties when the rate was 79.3 compared with Michigan’s rate of 54.6.

Kids Count in Michigan is a collaborative project of the Michigan League for Human Services (MILHS) and Michigan’s Children, and regularly collects and annually publishes information about child well-being as a basis for public policy development and community action. The annual data book is available from the MILHS and on the web at www.milhs.org.

For more information, click here to go to the Michigan League for Human Services

For more information about the 2006 Kids County in Michigan Report, click here.

For a summary report of the 2006 Kids Count in Michigan data, click here.