Flint Residents Experienced Decline in Fertility During Lead Water Crisis

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In the year after Flint, Michigan changed its water supply to the lead-tainted Flint River, there was decrease in fertility and an increase in fetal deaths among residents, according to an analysis of health statistics by a team of U.S. economists.

In the year after Flint, Michigan changed its water supply to the lead-tainted Flint River, there was decrease in fertility and an increase in fetal deaths among residents, according to an analysis of health statistics by a team of U.S. economists.

Economists David Slusky of the University of Kansas and Daniel Grossman of West Virginia University compared health statistics in Flint during the crisis to those from 15 other economically similar cities in Michigan. They found fertility rates among women in Flint who drank the lead-contaminated water dropped 12 percent compared to women in other communities. Fetal deaths increased by 58 percent.

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