The city of Flint saw fewer pregnancies, and a higher number of fetal deaths, during the period women and their fetuses were exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water, according to a new research study that reviewed health records from Flint and the state.
Fertility rates decreased by 12% among Flint women, and fetal death rates increased by 58%, after April 2014, according to research by assistant professors and health economists David Slusky at Kansas University and Daniel Grossman at West Virginia University. The pair examined vital statistics data for Flint and the rest of the state of Michigan from 2008 to 2015, zoomed down to the census-tract level.
That post-April 2014 time period is significant, because that's when — in an effort to save money — the city of Flint switched from water supplied by the city of Detroit to using the Flint River as a drinking water source, without adding needed anti-corrosives to the water. Lead levels in drinking water supplies spiked as a result.
The problem, however, wasn't acknowledged by Gov. Rick Snyder and state health and environmental officials until late September 2015 — months after Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency manager Miguel Del Toral alerted state and federal officials of their concerns, and weeks after Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha's own research showed children's lead blood levels were rising in Flint.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead can damage a developing baby's nervous system, causing miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as infertility in men and women. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, some women used lead pills to terminate pregnancies.
Additionally, state health officials confirmed 91 cases, including 12 deaths, from Legionnaire's Disease, a respiratory infection, in Genesee County in a 17-month period in 2014-15. Though not conclusively tied to the Flint water crisis, cases spiked after the city switched its water source.
Flint has since switched back to Great Lakes Water Authority-supplied water. ... "We weren’t particularly surprised by this, but we didn’t expect it be as clean and clear as it was."
The researchers looked at the number of women of child-bearing age in Flint and other large Michigan cities, and the number of live births, to calculate a birth rate for each city. Comparing Flint to other large Michigan cities helped mitigate for other factors that might affect birth rates, such as couples holding off on having children after the economic recession beginning in fall 2008, Slusky said.
Researchers also attempted to account for concerns by Flint residents about their city's water quality, and whether that led to any decision to wait on children. The researchers examined Google data for searches from Flint on "lead" and "lead poisoning," but found no increases in such searches until September 2015.
"During most of our time period, when the city and state officials were saying there was no problem, we didn't see any evidence of knowledge about lead in the water," Slusky said.
American Time Use Survey results showed Flint residents did not report any less sexual activity during the time period, he said.
"Either Flint residents were unable to conceive children, or women were having more miscarriages during this time," Slusky said.