REGION- The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is asking Michiganders in parts of Roscommon and Crawford counties to join the Michigan Chemical Exposure Monitoring (MiChEM) project. The MiChEM project is the first statewide effort to gather data on the amount of certain chemicals in the blood and urine of Michiganders, including lead, mercury and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
People can come in contact with chemicals in what they eat and drink, in products they use, at work and in their environment, like in the air, soil and water. It is not possible to test everyone in the state, so the MiChEM project team used a statistical method to randomly select households in different areas throughout the state.
“The MiChEM project will help us understand more about the chemical exposures of Michigan residents, including if some groups have greater amounts of certain chemicals in their bodies and how the amounts compare to national averages,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive. “This is the first time that a project of this type and scale has been done in Michigan.”
The MiChEM project team will be in Roscommon County from March 27-29 and April 3-5. Over the next few weeks, households in parts of Roscommon County and Crawford County will receive the project invitations. Any adult who receives an invitation in the mail from MDHHS to participate in the MiChEM project should follow the steps in their invitation to sign up as soon as possible, as the project team will only be in each area for a short amount of time.
One adult will be randomly selected to participate from each registered household. Taking part in this project is completely free and participants will receive their individual lab results along with a $65 gift card as a thank you for their time.
Approximately 138,000 randomly selected households from across the state will receive an invitation in the mail with details on how to join the MiChEM project. The multi-year MiChEM project began recruitment of selected households from the Lansing area and parts of Jackson, Ingham, Barry and Eaton counties in September 2022. Additional households from other communities are being recruited in following years.
People who are randomly selected to participate will be given a survey and asked to provide blood and urine samples. These samples will then be analyzed for a pre-determined number of chemicals at the MDHHS Bureau of Laboratories.
For more information, visit Michigan.gov/DEHBioD
