BIO

My name is Ali Bell and I am from Fort Myers, Florida. I am an undergraduate student at Florida State University studying Public Health. I intend on pursuing dentistry and owning my own practice one day. I enjoy researching any bodies of water and helping my community.

Lake Munson 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 CountyAverage: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: Mortality Rates, Surrounding counties