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Great Lakes: Danger Zones?Sheila KaplanFor more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially "alarming information" as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates. The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries. The study was originally scheduled for release in July 2007 by the IJC and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen "areas of concern"—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.
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The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund provides support for the research costs associated with investigative journalism. The Fund emphasizes reporting on subjects often ignored by the mainstream media, and seeks to improve the scope and overall quality of investigative reporting in the independent press. Above all, we want to support reporting with the potential to have a social impact. The Fund encourages its grant recipients to publish their findings in a variety of print, broadcast and electronic outlets. Director Joe Conason and investigative editor Esther Kaplan initiate and oversee Investigative Fund projects. Joe is an award-winning investigative reporter and a national correspondent for The New York Observer and a columnist for Salon.com. Esther is a longtime reporter and editor and author of the investigative book With God on Their Side: George W. Bush and the Christian Right. The first step in applying is to email us a story query and a budget request. It's useful to include information about what's new and enterprising about the research, your reporting approach, the story's potential impact, and what publication or broadcast outlet is interested in the piece. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. |