Health and Disability

A recent study by water activists and researchers at Henry Ford Global Health Initiative has shown an association between shutoffs and some water-associated illnesses.

Working with the group We the People of Detroit, researchers compared block-level water disconnection data in Detroit from January 2015 to February 2016 with Henry Ford Hospital admissions and diagnoses for gastrointestinal and soft tissue infections during that time.  

The records showed that patients who lived on a block with shutoffs were 1.55 times more likely to have a water-associated illness, even when other socioeconomic situations are taken into consideration