New Study Shows Flint Water Affects Baby Weight

Pressure from the crisis is now forcing Michigan officials to consider what could become the strictest lead water rules in the United States, according to Michigan Public Radio. But Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who has been blamed for not adequately addressing the Flint water crisis, has called the federal Lead and Copper Rule “dumb and dangerous .”

In place for more than 25 years, the EPA rule provides for control and monitoring of the levels of lead in drinking water as exposure may cause health problems ranging from stomach distress to brain damage. Children are especially susceptible as lead can affect their brain development, behavior, and can result in anti-social behavior, anemia, hypertension, and toxicity to the reproductive organs. Lead in a pregnant person’s blood can affect embryo development, according to the World Health Organization.

“Children in nearly 4,000 communities across the United States have recorded lead levels more than twice those found in Flint at the height of the crisis.”

Dr. Daniel Grossman, who studies reproductive health and is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, told Rewire that this is an important study but that more time and research is needed to fully understand the effects of what is happening in Flint. Dr. Grossman is a medical doctor and not the author of the same name of the Flint study referenced above.

“This very rigorous study suggests that birth weights decreased after the Flint water crisis, particularly for white women. The study does not tell us why birth weight has decreased, but it may be due to lead exposure, stress, or something else. More in-depth research is needed in this community to understand the cause of this adverse birth outcome,” he said. “It may be years before we know the full public health impact of the Flint water crisis. It’s critical that rigorous research be done to understand how the health of the people living in these communities has been affected by this tragedy.”

Where once public officials dismissed citizen accounts of how bad the water tasted and smelled, studies are now providing irrefutable proof of the harm it has done. The problem is more widespread than anyone could have imagined.

Beyond the 71 water systems in Michigan that have recorded higher-than-Flint lead levels, a Reuters investigationfound that children in nearly 4,000 communities across the United States have recorded lead levels more than twice those found in Flint at the height of the crisis.

“This is a real tragedy, and it’s one that’s backed up by sound statistics and sound science that lays out how important of a calamity it is,” Adams said. “We want to not only shed a light there but also to let people know there are these tragedies waiting to happen and we cannot ignore the human toll that they will have.”

Auditi Guha is the race and justice reporter for Rewire. She has uncovered corruption, injustice, discrimination and fielded death threats in her career from India to Boston. She most recently worked at The Standard-Times in New Bedford and was previously a crime reporter for The Cambridge Chronicle and Somerville Journal where she was one of 12 national Guggenheim criminal justice fellows in New York in 2012.

This article previously appeared in Rewire and Portside .

Article Appeared @https://www.blackagendareport.com/new-study-shows-flint-water-affects-baby-weight

 

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