Mapping Flint

Many people have heard my ZIP Code soapbox speech and I recently wrote a longer piece about ZIP Codes in Detroit. In Flint, the oddity of ZIP Codes and the reliance on ZIP Codes for health statistics and health information tracking for the misunderstood “protection” of patient data. The short soapbox speech is that ZIP Codes are squiggly lines created for mail delivery that the Census turns into shapes because everyone knows their ZIP Code.

In Flint, ZIP Codes led to the failure to properly track disparate health impacts of lead poisoning during the Flint Water Crisis. This map and a great write-up come from Dick (Rick) Sadler, a medical geographer who worked on the blood lead analysis with Dr. Mona Hanna:

“One-third of all homes with a Flint ZIP code lie outside the city. Thus, the state’s numbers for Flint were watered down by an additional 50 percent of addresses that weren’t in the city and weren’t using Flint water. This is referred to in geography as the modifiable areal unit problem.”