BIO

My name is John Stainbrook and I am from Sarasota Florida. I love exercising and spending time outdoors. I am most interested in research with relation to public health, as I love working to be a part of a positive change, and to contribute to something larger than myself such as the wellbeing of others. In the future, I hope to do more work with Lake Munson in particular to potentially find a solution or help alleviate the contamination of the lake and other lakes like it.

Lake Munson Mortality Project

Abstract

Lake Munson has been a polluted body of water for more than 100 years, the people living in the area have noted complications and disease arising from their proximity to the lake since this time. Using data tabulated from Florida Health and Charts, along with supporting socioeconomic databases, research was conducted to ascertain the validity of these claims. Census Tracts 27.01, 18.01, 11.01, 10.01, 10.02, 22.01, 14.02, and 20.03 had the lowest life expectancy figures in Leon County from 2015-2019 ranging from 67.10 to 72.90 years and averaging 70.26 years (Leon County Average:79.6 years). Utilizing a T test for significance, the 8 life expectancies were lower than the Leon County Average to a degree of high statistical significance, (p=0, n>50). Five of these eight directly encompass Lake Munson and the Munson Slough: 27.01, 18.01, 11.01, 10.01, and 10.02. Census tracts 22.01, 14.02, and 20.03 do not directly surround Munson and the Munson Slough, however census tracts 20.03 and 14.02 have extremely high poverty rates of 64.20% and 64.80% respectively. The poverty rate for the remaining 6 census tracts are not as high, ranging from 19.30% to 41.70% and averaging 32.50% (Leon County Average poverty rate: 22%). These results seem to support our initial hypothesis that the pollution of Lake Munson is affecting the life expectancy of those living in the aforementioned-census tracts

Keywords: Lake Munson Pollution Public Health Life Expectancy