The Fertility Rate in Flint Has Plummeted After the Water Crisis

‘Lead-poisoned water in Flint, Michigan, may have led to a significant drop in the number of babies born in the town, according a newly released study. Researchers found that after elected leaders decided to save money by switching the city’s water supply source in 2014, the area saw a precipitous rise in miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as infants born with “health complications.” The new report was undertaken to underscore the urgent necessity of a registry to trace health effects of the contaminated water and establish precisely how many residents were exposed.
Study co-authors Daniel Grossman of West Virginia University and David Slusky of the University of Kansas estimate that fetal deaths—that is, “pregnancies lasting more than 20 weeks that do not result in a live birth”—dropped by a “horrifyingly large” rate of 58 percent. (Abortions were not counted among the tally.) The number of live births fell by 12 percent.’
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