Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Spring;43(2):368-399.
doi: 10.1002/pam.22558. Epub 2023 Dec 14.

Drinking Water Contaminant Concentrations and Birth Outcomes

Richard W DiSalvo  1 , Elaine L Hill  2
Affiliations

Drinking Water Contaminant Concentrations and Birth Outcomes

Richard W DiSalvo et al. J Policy Anal Manage. 2024 Spring.

Abstract

Previous research in the US has found negative health effects of contamination when it triggers regulatory violations. An important question is whether levels of contamination that do not trigger a health-based violation impact health. We study the impact of drinking water contamination in community water systems on birth outcomes using drinking water sampling results data in Pennsylvania. We focus on the effects of water contamination for births not exposed to regulatory violations. Our most rigorous specification employs mother fixed effects and finds changing from the 10th to the 90th percentile of water contamination (among births not exposed to regulatory violations) increases low birth weight by 12% and preterm birth by 17%.

Keywords: I18; Q52; Q53; birth outcomes; community water systems; drinking water contamination; low birth weight.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure A1:
Figure A1:
Philadelphia water distribution system map
Figure A2:
Figure A2:
Changes in PWS boundaries 2011 compared to 2016. Notes: Blue areas are CWS coverage gains, while orange areas are CWS losses.
Figure A3:
Figure A3:
Changes in PWS boundaries 2016 compared to 2022.
Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Map of Pennsylvania and 1,768 CWS service areas.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Philadelphia Water Consumer Confidence Report summary results, 2017.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Albouy-Llaty M, Limousi F, Carles C, Dupuis A, Rabouan S, & Migeot V (2016). Association between exposure to endocrine disruptors in drinking water and preterm birth, taking neighborhood deprivation into account: A historic cohort study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(8), 796. 10.3390/ijerph13080796 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allaire M, Mackay T, Zheng S, & Lall U (2019). Detecting community response to water quality violations using bottled water sales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(42), 20917–20922. 10.1073/pnas.1905385116 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allaire M, Wu H, & Lall U (2018). National trends in drinking water quality violations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(9) 2078–2083. 10.1073/pnas.1719805115 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Almberg KS, Turyk ME, Jones RM, Rankin K, Freels S, & Stayner LT (2018). Atrazine contamination of drinking water and adverse birth outcomes in community water systems with elevated atrazine in Ohio, 2006–2008. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(9), 1889. 10.3390/ijerph15091889 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Almond D, Chay KY, & Lee DS (2005). The costs of low birth weight. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(3), 1031–1083. 10.1093/qje/120.3.1031 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources