Data collected, analysis begins
 Friday, October 07, 2005
 JEREMIAH STETTLER THE SAGINAW NEWS

The field work is finished.

Now University of Michigan scientists must pore over data that could determine whether people living on suspected contaminated soil have more dioxin in their bodies than people who live elsewhere.

By summer, the university will release one of the largest dioxin human exposure studies on record -- a $15 million probe into how environmental contamination affects humans.

"This is going to be one of the real anchors in this area of science," said lead researcher David Garabrant.

The study is funded by Dow Chemical Co., the Midland-based chemical manufacturer accused of polluting properties along the Tittabawassee River with dioxin. Garabrant maintains that he has conducted the study objectively and independently.

Garabrant announced Thursday that his team has finished more than 1,300 interviews and sampled enough blood, dust and soil to compare people in dioxin-exposed areas to those in presumably clean places.

The data, now deemed complete, include people living along the Tittabawassee River, in Saginaw and Midland counties, and in the supposedly unexposed Jackson and Calhoun counties.

Garabrant said his team has collected full blood, dust and soil samples from 731 of those people -- 548 in Saginaw and Midland counties and 183 in south-central Michigan.

U-M scientists now await the results. They have sent the samples to the ALTA Analytical Laboratory in San Diego for analysis.

"We essentially have the lab full," Garabrant said. "We shipped them all the blood, all the dust and we are still finishing the soil. I suspect the laboratory has freezers full of samples queued up to be analyzed."

Garabrant could not say when the results would return, but reported Thursday that he likely will present the data publicly by late spring or summer.

So far, scientists are on schedule. "We are dead on it and maybe a little ahead," Garabrant said.

With the field work complete, scientists have posted the questionnaire used by surveyors online at www.umdiox in.org. v

Jeremiah Stettler is a staff writer. Call him at 776-9685.
 

For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawassee River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.