But, she added, “the powers for public health emergencies are expected to be used sparingly” and declarations of emergencies are more typically used to marshall forces to combat an emerging problem.

Detroit’s water shutoff situation, Udow-Phillips added, is rooted in poverty and a host of other issues that could make it difficult to address with a health emergency.

‘Always push back’

In fact, there has been research into the health effects of Detroit water shutoffs, but much of it has been controversial, said Mary Sheffield, president pro-tem of the City Council.

Sheffield is sponsoring the resolution seeking the moratorium that the council could consider Tuesday. She also wants the state to conduct “independent research” into the health effects, which she contends have been downplayed by the administration of Mayor Mike Duggan.

“There’s always been pushback and pressure not to do [studies] here,” contended Sheffield, who added the council is considering its next steps now that Whitmer has denied the ACLU's request for an emergency.

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One disputed study was released in 2017, when researchers at the Henry Ford Global Health Initiative found an association between shutoffs and water-borne illnesses like gastrointestinal and soft tissue infections.

Working with anti-shutoff activists We the People of Detroit, researchers compared block-level disconnection data with admissions at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. They found that patients who lived in a block with shutoffs were 1.55 times more likely to have a water-associated illness, even when other socioeconomic situations were taken into consideration.

In a 2017 statement, one of the authors, Alexander Plum, said the study showed that “depriving people of access to water has health consequences.” Another Henry Ford study participant, statistician Kyle Moxey, presented the findings at a March 2017 meeting of the International Joint Commission, saying "when people don't have access to clean drinking water, people get sick."

Soon thereafter, a study co-author, Dr. Marcus Zervos, accused water activists of politicizing “preliminary findings” for “political purposes" and saying more study on the issue is needed.

The study is no longer online, and water activists accused Duggan’s staff of stifling it.

The city’s former deputy health director, George Gaines, issued a smaller report in 2018 that concluded a “positive causal relationship” between shutoffs and diseases was “plausible.”

It noted that, since the shutoffs began, the city had experienced outbreaks of three waterborne diseases: shigellosis, acute dysentry; giardiasis, a diarrheal disease, as well as Campylobacter infections, which affects the intestines.

Whitmer’s attorney, Totten, criticized both studies in his Friday letter, saying they have “serious limitations.” The state's review of Detroit data found that cases of shigellosis and Campylobacter rose in multiple locations from 2014 to 2017, while giardiasis increased in Detroit in 2017 but dropped again in 2018, said Lynn Sutfin, a state health spokeswoman.