DETROIT — Today, the Michigan Democratic Party launched new billboards across Detroit and a digital ad campaign calling out MAGA-funded Mike Duggan for allowing cancerous chemicals, including lead and arsenic, to be dumped in neighborhoods across Detroit—putting kids at risk and leaving taxpayers to foot the clean-up bill.
Testing has shown that the dirt Duggan used to backfill sites across Detroit is rife with lead, arsenic, and other harmful contaminants that pose serious cancer risks. According to experts, Duggan’s dirty dirt is especially dangerous to children playing outside.
Taxpayers are now on the hook for a multi-million dollar clean-up at hundreds of sites across Detroit, and journalist Tom Perkins noted that Duggan was now “skating out of town, leaving these pits full of toxic waste next to people.”
In 2015, Duggan promised Detroiters that he was making it “very difficult” to bring in soil “unless we were confident where it came from.” But Duggan failed to keep his promise, and by the end of 2025, a criminal probe was opened into Duggan’s dirty dirt. Experts have questioned Duggan’s failures to manage the situation and properly test the dirt, with a former state regulator describing it as “mismanagement.”
“Because of Mike Duggan, children across Detroit are now exposed to dangerous and cancerous chemicals that pose serious health risks,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel. “Duggan allowed lead and arsenic to be dumped across the city and taxpayers are now footing the bill to clean up his toxic mess. Mike Duggan should explain why he downplayed this issue and allowed these cancerous chemicals near our kids.”
Billboards running across Detroit:
Digital Ad:
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