A new analysis from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services calls into question a study which indicated the switch in Flint water had a large impact on fertility rates and fetal deaths in the city.
The MDHHS analysis and University of Virginia study looked at slightly different things, fertility rates versus birth outcomes.
Nigel Paneth is a professor at Michigan State University who helped MDHHS analyze birth outcomes in Flint.
He said even though the MDHHS analysis looked at something slightly different, the University of Virginia study had discrepancies.
“The other component of their argument is that the decline as it occurred was due to an excessive fetal loss. That I find very difficult to credit for any number of reasons, the largest being it’s not clear there was any documented increase in fetal loss.”
Paneth said a small increase in fetal loss wasn’t statistically significant.
“The increase in fetal death rates was not statistically significant, it was a very small increase, and it actually looked like a return to a normal fetal death rate from an unusually low one.”
Paneth said the fertility decline seen in Flint matches an ongoing trend.
“The fertility decline in the last year, say 2014-2015, is a little larger than it was in previous years but it’s been part of a long term decline and there were years in which there has been a five or six percent decline in the fertility rate other than this one. And this year looked like it was an eight or nine percent decline. I didn’t see that as anything dramatic.”
Researchers on the original study say they are reviewing the MDHHS analysis but have no comment at this time.
