MADISON, Wis., – As U.S. governments continue to grapple with how to address the millions of lead water pipes still in service, new research from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison is the first to connect lead pipe installation in the early 20th century to reductions in the American lifespan.
Lead pipe installation during this period of massive public works reduced longevity in areas that used the hazardous material by an average of 2.7 months for those whose exposure began in utero.
All told, using lead pipes in water systems may have accounted for 2.17 million years lost across the US.
Co-authored by the La Follette School’s Jason Fletcher, the working paper adds to the large scientific literature on the negative effects of human exposure to lead. While researchers have long established a link between early life exposure and effects such as delayed cognitive development, this study’s innovative research design allowed it to demonstrate lead’s negative effect on longevity for the first time.
“We all know that exposure to lead is terrible for humans, especially at young ages,” Fletcher says. “This study shows us that lead exposure not only makes our lives worse, but it also makes our lives shorter. This insight comes at an important time as the EPA discusses new rules to eliminate lead pipes across the country, where more than 15 million people are still using service lines with lead in them.”
Fletcher and his co-author, Hamid Noghanibehambari from Austin Peay State University and an affiliate of UW-Madison’s Center for Demography of Health and Aging, used Social Security Administration death records from 1975-2005 that were linked to the 1940 US census. They identified counties of birth and cross-referenced the data with reports on water system construction for 761 cities across the US.
Because some cities or counties used lead pipes while others used different materials during the water system boom of the early 20th century, Fletcher and Noghanibehambari were able to compare the old-age longevity of individuals who were exposed to lead pipes with those who were not.
In addition to an overall reduction of 2.7 months on average, the study also found that the effects of lead pipes were three and a half times larger for nonwhites and two times larger for Americans from low socioeconomic statuses.
“As is often the case, these negative effects have not been equally distributed,” Fletcher says. “People of color and people of little means who sought opportunity in large cities have been disproportionately affected by lead, and this continues to be the case in cities like Chicago and Milwaukee.”
The study also found that these lead cities displayed lower educational attainments and early adulthood occupational incomes, which likely contributed to earlier deaths.
As an additional layer of analysis, it used World War II enlistment data and found reductions in height, an important predictor of overall health later in life.
This new paper is part of a larger research agenda that connects early life conditions and mortality.
Fletcher was recently awarded the prestigious 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship to further this research.
Lead water pipes in the US accounted for 2.17 million years of life lost
Leave a Reply