 |
| via huffingtonpost.com |
"An estimated 275 fewer children were born in Flint, Michigan, while the city was using lead-contaminated water from the Flint River, according to findings by researchers from West Virginia University and the University of Kansas.
"We compared fertility rates in Flint to fertility rates in other big cities in Michigan and we found that, following the water change, fertility rates dropped substantially in Flint but did not change in other areas," said Daniel Grossman, assistant professor of economics at WVU's College of Business and Economics. "We also explored fetal death rates in Flint and found that they increased 58 percent following the water switch.
"This can only explain a small fraction of the overall change in fertility rates and we speculate that much of the results we find are likely due to an increase in miscarriages in Flint," he said.
Flint, once part of the Detroit area's legendary automobile manufacturing sector, has faced a major public health emergency due to lead poisoning since it temporarily changed its public water source to the Flint River in April 2014.
Although officials had seen serious health problems in Flint such as a wave of Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in 2014 and 2015, no public warning was issued until early 2016. As a result, a number of Michigan officials now face criminal charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to misconduct in office to obstruction of justice.
The report said that "only the city of Flint switched their water source at this time, while the rest of Michigan did not. These areas provide a natural control group for Flint in that they are economically similar areas and, with the exception of the change in water supply, followed similar trends in fertility and birth outcomes over this time period..."
Learn more:
No comments:
Post a Comment