A preliminary study conducted by researchers at the Henry Ford Global Health Initiative found that patients who live on blocks that experienced water shutoffs were 1.55 times more likely to be diagnosed with a water-associated illness.

The study was the subject of a news conference Wednesday at Wayne State University's Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. However, while panel included academics and physicians from across the country, Henry Ford doctors were noticeably absent.

"Henry Ford should be proud of its researchers. Instead, if you look at the media relations arm of Henry Ford, they are backpedaling faster than I have ever seen," said Peter Hammer, the center's director.

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While the report helped to bring empirical analysis to an issue that academics say is common sense — water shutoffs have created a public health crisis — those from Henry Ford's public relations department have been working to minimize the findings.

When the hospital was reached for comment, spokesman David Olejarz forwarded a response from one of the report's senior authors, Marcus Zervos.

"I am disheartened by the reaction of activist groups. We approached this issue as an exploratory effort into the possible public health impact of water shutoffs, understanding that the results would only be preliminary and shape the framework for a future comprehensive cause and effect study," wrote Zervos.

"Unfortunately, this study continues to be used for political purposes, and our health system’s integrity is being unfairly challenged. This is unacceptable, as we have a stellar reputation for public health and medical research."

He conceded at the end of the statement, however, that "It’s reasonable to conclude that there would be some impact to public health caused by water shutoffs."

When contacted, Zervos said his report's findings were accurate — those who lived on blocks with mass water shutoffs were 1.55 times more likely to be diagnosed with a water-associated illness. He maintained, however, while cc'ing hospital PR on the e-mail, that the data was preliminary and not meant for dissemination.

Hammer said he thinks the health system is downplaying the report because the city of Detroit does not come off in the best light with these reports, which stop short of implying Detroit's water shutoffs have created a man-made public health crisis like in Flint, and the hospital does a lot of business with the city. Currently, the health system owns more than 200 buildings in Detroit and is working on a number of new developments, many of which will need the city's support for permits and zoning.

While he couldn't conclusively say why Henry Ford was backing away from the report, he pointed to a Monday Michigan Radio article on the topic of the study, in which an unnamed person from Henry Ford explained to the station that they were committed to the health and safety of their patients and the city's residents, but that they were also committed to their relationship with the city.

"You certainly see some possible motivation as to why they don't want to raise this issue that their researchers are finding in terms of public health," said Hammer, who noted that there has been an attempt in recent months to diminish the work of those questioning the city's water shutoffs by painting them as disgruntled "activists."

Hammer explained during his introduction that following the creation of a Facebook page for the panel, Wayne State Police received an e-mail from the Great Lakes Water Authority's Security Specialist/Investigator flagging the event, hosted in part by the law school, as a "protest."

"I didn't know I was a threat to homeland security by saying that people's health is threatened if they don't have water," said Hammer. "If they're putting that on an academic institution, treating this as a homeland security threat issue, who else is being chilled with the nature of their speech?"

With Henry Ford absent, and no city public health official willing to label what is happening in Detroit as a public health crisis, the Detroit Equity Action Lab — a program at the Keith Center — and We the People of Detroit, a research organization, called on people whose water had been shut off, doctors and academics from around the country to shed light on the issue they feel is being silenced in their community.

"I wish I didn't have to be here because I wish there were local public health officials and board medical professionals that could say what I am going to say," Dr. Wendy Johnson, director of La Familia Medical Center in New Mexico, said before detailing the five most notable public health consequences from Detroit's water shutoffs:

Dehydration, which causes a litany of problems, specifically for elderly and young people and those with chronic diseases.

Poor hygiene, which can help spread and create water-related problems like the skin disease MRSA, as well as various GI issues.

Unhealthy choices that can cause other health problems. If someone is without water, he or she cannot cook, which means he or she is eating cheap fast-food and drinking sugary beverages, which are less expensive than bottled water.

Mental health issues. For example, she said, the inability to bathe negatively affects one's sense of self-worth, as well as the ability to concentrate at school or work.

Ripple effects; many of the water-borne diseases are contagious.

"The folks that are suffering from these water shutoffs aren't just staying in their houses," she said. "They're going out shopping in grocery stores, taking care of kids, delivering food to you at lunch time, cleaning the office buildings, they're cleaning the hotels, they're cleaning homes, they are in the community living their lives. And that puts the entire community at risk. So the water shutoffs are a public health crisis of enormous dimensions."

To Johnson, who was the director of Public Health in Cleveland previously, the silence of Detroit's previous public health director Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for governor of Michigan, and the current director, Dr. Joneigh S. Khaldun, who previously worked Henry Ford Health System, is deafening.

"It is, to me, astonishing and unconscionable that I have to be here today," she said, noting that the city appeared to have a prioritized profit over the community.

Between 2014 and 2016, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department shut off water in more than 80,000 homes and buildings in the city. With an estimated 2.7 people living in each household, according to the most recent census data, that is more than 200,000 Detroiters, often some of the most vulnerable and disenfranchised, affected by the shutoffs. The city is expected to conduct an additional 18,000 shutoffs this year.

"This is not rocket science, you don't need five letters after your name to know this stuff, you all know it intuitively," said Johnson. "Water is life."

From Detroit Water and Sewer Department's perspective, the city is making strides in helping its citizens.

Gary Brown, the director of the DWSD, sent a statement to the Free Press saying that the department was "committed to helping Detroiters keep their water service," noting that in 2014, it launched the city's first assistance program.

"In the past year and a half, we have provided $8 million in financial assistance ... to 6,300 customers who have had difficulty paying their bills," wrote Brown.

"Another 22,000 customers have been able to keep their water on by getting into an affordable payment plan. Because of these programs, 82% of customers who were at risk of shut off this year have been taken off of that list."

These facts, however, raised questions for some of the panelists Wednesday, including Rochelle Weatherspoon, a retired nurse whose water was shut off in 2015.

That summer the 58-year-old went to the hospital for a cyst under her arm and learned she contracted MRSA while there.

It wasn't until she returned home, however, that she realized her diagnosis was about to get significantly worse. While washing her hands — a necessity for those with a contagious disease like MRSA — Weatherspoon realized her water had been shut off. Just before going to the hospital she had spent all the money she could muster on her water bill but it wasn't enough. A blue "water cut" sign had been spray-painted on the front of her house, something she describes as the Detroit version of a scarlet letter.

Weatherspoon, who spent more than three decades working as a nurse, described Wednesday morning, the humiliation and difficult decisions she, and her family, had to make when the water was shut off at her home. Her adoptive daughter had her period at the time, for example, and Weatherspoon had to tell her to buy three water bottles to "clean up" in the sink.

It was a low point for the northwest Detroiter, and while she is currently on the payment-assistance plan Brown described, she is aware that she is always one difficult month away from her water being shut off again. It's a reality that has her questioning why Detroit, a city where the poverty rate is just below 40%, promotes water assistance instead of water affordability.

This a question reiterated by others Wednesday, including by Dr. Paul T. von Oeyen, a retired high-risk obstetrician who previously served as the medical director of the Family Birth Center at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

"If the administration in the city of Detroit really wanted the present population to stay in the city, they would find a way to make water affordable," said von Oeyen.

Contact Allie Gross: aegross@freepress.com