High Lead Levels In Drinking Water Linked To Miscarriages

Researchers at Hurley Medical Center are investigating whether the lead contamination crisis in Flint, MI, increased the number of miscarriages in the city.

Previous research has indicated a link between lead contaminated water and miscarriages, according to Michigan Radio.

"Lead was [one of the] first means of controlling family size, back about 150 years ago; to abort children, women would actually ingest lead [pills]," said Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech researcher who helped expose Flint’s water crisis.

Edwards studied the link between lead and miscarriage in Washington, D.C., in the 2000s. The results were published in Environmental Science & Technology two years ago.

“Overall results are consistent with prior research linking increased lead exposure to higher incidence of miscarriages and fetal death, even at blood lead elevations (≈5 μg/dL) once considered relatively low,” the report said.

Edwards told Michigan Radio: “We could not prove that lead in water caused the reduced birth rates and the high rates of fetal death. However, there was an association.”

Ultimately, it may be difficult to find out whether high lead levels increased the miscarriage rate in Flint.

"Because miscarriages are things that don’t necessarily get reported. Women don’t necessarily go to the doctor. They obviously don’t have to go to hospital, necessarily,” according to Jenny LaChance, a clinical researcher at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, per Michigan Radio. “And truthfully sometimes they may not even know they’ve had a miscarriage, right? If it’s very early on in the pregnancy, it may not even have been known.”

The state is analyzing data around stillbirths in Flint. The Hurley Center hopes to share its own result within three months.

Edwards weighed in on the investigation.

“I think that what you can say, is clearly, the lead exposures that occurred, would be expected to have increased adverse pregnancy outcomes significantly,” he said, per Michigan Radio. “What you’re really just trying to do here is say, was there an association, basically, during this time period of high lead in water? Did in fact that prediction, as horrible as it is, come true?”

To read all of our Flint coverage visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.