Title: Clean water's historic effect on U.S. mortality rates provides hope for developing countries.

POPLINE Document Number: 290365

Author(s):

Scommegna P

Source citation:

Washington, D.C. Population Reference Bureau [PRB], 2005 May. 5 p.

Abstract:

The introduction of water filtration and chlorination in major U.S. cities between 1900 and 1940 accounted for about one-half of the 30 percent decline in urban death rates during those years, according to research published in the February 2005 issue of the journal Demography. And the study's authors argue that their findings have relevance today in the developing world, where access to safe drinking water is growing but often still inadequate. "Inexpensive water disinfection technologies can have enormous health returns in poor countries, even in the absence of sanitation services," says David Cutler, a Harvard economist and co-author of the study. Cutler and co-author Grant Miller, a Harvard graduate student, found that clean water was responsible for cutting three-quarters of infant mortality and nearly two-thirds of child mortality in the United States in the first 40 years of the 20th century—the most rapid health improvements in the nation's history. "Nearly all the mortality decline is accounted for by reductions in infectious disease, which today is only a small share of total mortality," write the authors. (excerpt)

Keywords:

United States
Developing Countries
Historical Review
Urban Population
Water Quality
Water Supply
Public Health
Mortality Decline
Infections
Disease Prevention
Diarrhea
Financial Activities
North America
Americas
Developed Countries
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Population
Environmental Pollution
Environment
Natural Resources
Health
Mortality
Population Dynamics
Diseases
Prevention and Control
Economic Factors
Water