Tuesday, November 14th, 2017
Stephan: Social policies based on short term profit, greed, and the accommodation of special interests are always destructive of social wellbeing. Flint, Michigan's water tragedy created by Republican governance is a classic example, and also a cautionary tale to to which we should pay close attention.
Republican social policies and, again, I say this not from the perspective of partisan politics but simply on the basis of social outcome data, have long term consequences that can take years to fully comprehend.
As you read this, remember the story I ran the other day on the fight about what material to use when water pipes are replaced. Decisions have consequences and, to the degree that we can, all social decisions first and foremost should be based on whether they foster wellbeing.
Flint water
When the city of Flint, Michigan, temporarily switched its water source to the Flint River in 2014, it didn’t treat the water properly. The untreated river water corroded pipes, allowing lead to leach into the water. Tests found lead levels in the region’s water to be higher than that of hazardous waste, but the city failed to warn residents of the danger for months. State officials are now facing criminal charges for their role.
The devastating health consequences of this lapse are now becoming clear. A recent paper finds that the city’s lead crisis may have sparked a drop in birth rates and a precipitous rise in miscarriages. For the working paper, Daniel Grossman from West Virginia University and David Slusky from the University of Kansas compared fertility rates in Flint to those in other Michigan cities before and after Flint changed its water source in 2014.
They found that fertility, or the birth rate, declined by 12 percent among Flint women, and the fetal death rate increased by 58 […]
