FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tommy Jaime, 608-265-6175, tjaime@lafollette.wisc.edu
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.
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About the La Follette School of Public Affairs
The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is a leading academic institution in improving the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policy and the practice of governance. The school began as the Center for the Study of Public Policy and Administration at UW–Madison in 1967 as part of the Department of Political Science. In 1983, the Wisconsin Legislature formally separated the center from the Department of Political Science and named it the Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public Affairs after the former Wisconsin governor, U.S. senator, and proponent of progressivism. In 1999, UW–Madison’s Center for Development became part of the La Follette Institute, which was renamed the La Follette School of Public Affairs. At the same time, the school began offering Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degrees and Master of International Public Affairs (MIPA) degrees. Today, La Follette School faculty, alumni, students, and staff extend the practice of the Wisconsin Idea across the state and around the world through research and outreach that inspires evidence-based policymaking, impacts society’s pressing problems, and advances the public good.
Original Publication
Fletcher, Jason, Noghanibehambari, Hamid, Toxified to the Bone: Early-Life and Childhood Exposure to Lead and Men’s Old-Age Mortality, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series No. 31957, December 2023, http://www.nber.org/papers/w31957.
Authors and Affiliations
Jason Fletcher, La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Hamid Noghanibehambari, College of Business, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN, USA; Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA